SAPP tackles energy crises in SADC

The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) received US $50 million grant to fund its energy projects in Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.

Speaking at the SAPP meeting in Gaborone yesterday, SAPP Coordination Centre Manager, James Hammons, said one of the major challenges in their projects is lack of funds. “We decided to come up with strategies on how to run projects. We looked for support from African Development Bank which sponsored Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia (ZiZaBoNa) and right now we have already received 20 million dollars from the grant,” said Hammons.

SAPP plans to commission 2,763 mw in 2015 from Democratic Republic of Congo with 430 mw, Mozambique 205 mw, South Africa 1828 mw Tanzania 150 mw Zambia 135 mw and Zimbabwe 15mw. He said the money is divided into two parts, the first part is to set up the team, and the other part will be used to finance the project which is divided into two components, the feasibility study and the construction. “We want to conduct our projects by doing feasibility studies first.

The project advisory unit will handle all these processes,” he said. The SADC region is currently experiencing power shortages due to increased demand with static power supply as a result of limited investment in both generation and transmission infrastructure across the region. SAPP was created with the primary aim to provide reliable and economical electricity supply to the consumers of each of the SAPP members, consistent with reasonable utilisation of natural resources and the effect of the environment.