DURBAN – Ongoing and planned investments in new power generation capacity in the southern African region will add some 35 500 megawatts by 2015 and ease shortages in the region.
Lawrence Musaba, Coordination Centre Manager at the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP), said the projects will help raise the reserve margin – or spare capacity – to at least ten per cent.’By 2015, if the short-term and also medium-term projects are completed, our reserve margin will move from five per cent to at least ten per cent,’ he told an African utility conference in Durban.Musaba said that a more flexible and active electricity trading pool, which SAPP developed to boost power trading in the region, has been operating since earlier this month and has seen a gradual increase in electricity trade.’Power is flowing… it’s traded competitively on the market and the volumes are increasing,’ he said.The start-up of the system has been delayed due to energy imbalances on the lines and challenges in transmission pricing.Most of the power exchanged in the region – some 20 per cent of the region’s supply of around 42 000 MW – has so far been traded via bilateral long-term contracts with fixed tariffs.With the new system SAPP is aiming at boosting trade and allowing utilities to cover short-term supply shortages.With a more competitive system, prices will be set on a spot basis based on demand and supply between the utilities in the countries where SAPP operates.Musaba said in the initial weeks trade has peaked at 50 megawatts per hour, but the pool is hoping to increase that.’The idea is to get at least five to ten per cent of the energy traded in the region to be traded on the spot market,’ he said.So far three utilities were participating in the market, although the pool plans to soon include all utilities from the region and also from elsewhere in the continent.Musaba said the Zambia-Kenya-Tanzania interconnector, currently under discussion by the three governments, should help boost trade between east and southern Africa, especially because of the power differentials between the regions.He said power in southern Africa cost one-third of that in east Africa, adding that the line could be built within five years from the time an investment decision has been made. – Nampa-Reuters
