Kabo Ngwanaamotho

So we have only one power provider in Botswana – government owned utility BPC. And we import more than 70% of our electricity demand from neighboring South Africa. We are part of the South African Power Pool (SAPP), and how good is our power quality, not very good im afraid.

Press Release:Daily News Online,   05 June, 2007,Blackout due to plant failure

GABORONE – Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) chief executive officer, John Kaluzi says the black out on Sunday was a result of the problems encountered on the Matimba Power Station in South Africa.

A statement from the BPC chief says Eskom had requested emergency repairs on the 400kV line from Matimba in South Africa to Phokoje in Selebi Phikwe and it was agreed that the repairs would last from 06:14hrs to 16:00hrs on Sunday.

BPC/Eskom agreed to route power imports from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which are normally destined for South Africa to be routed to Botswana to minimise the need for any load shedding. Read More here

So how does the Power Pool operate in such conditions, isnt it in place to guard against this? Did it fail? I did a short essay on transmission pricing (by the way havent seen result yet!) and it seems prices in the pool have been going up since 2002! Check out the essay here –> Power Systems Engineering with Economics

And last year i was in Botswana for 6 months doing a project at  Jwaneng Mine investigating voltage (power) dips so this ultimately meant i had to investigate power quality from BPC as well.

You can acess the two reports here too

1. Submitted August 2006 –> Power Dips – Phase 1

2. Submitted January 2007 –> Power Dips – Phase 2

Criticism is always welcome (but praise is appreciated more!)