The government is still cagey on the valuation price of the ongoing sale of Morupule B power plant, citing confidentiality of the negotiations.
Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Stephan Schwarzfischer says the corporation wants to sell the power plant to the highest bidder, adding that they wanted to sell Morupule B first to China National Electric Engineering Company (CNEEC).
“We expect CNEEC to come to the negotiations and if all goes well we expect the possible handover of the power plant to be done it the first quarter of January 2018,” he revealed.
He is of the view that by trying to sell the power plant to other bidders, the corporation might face risk of others buyers not knowing the power plant than CNEEC who built it. He added that they expected the sales and power purchase agreements in the next four weeks after BPC meets CNEEC. He added that once the agreements have been made, BPC needs board approval for the possible handover.
“Assuming the negotiation fails, we will go for retendering process to look for other interested bidders and we have concluded all the tender documents from the previous sessions held,” said Schwarzfischer.
He confirmed that internally they know the valuation of Morupule B power plant and shared it with the ministry adding that the valuation is not open to third parties for discussions as negotiation are ongoing.
Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Advocate Sadique Kebonang told the media during the recent press conference that the current maximum demand for Botswana is estimated at 681MW adding that it is expected to grow by 336MW to 1017MW in 2025. He further stated that the country’s installed generating capacity stands at 927MW and comprises of the 132MW Morupule A, which is under care and maintenance.
“The ongoing plan is to develop the proposed 300MW Morupule Units 5 and 6 (Brown field) through IPPs. When other electrification projects are complete, installed generation capacity will rise to approximately 1 200MW with a forecasted excess of 300MW,” said Kebonang.
He spoke of this year current winter, where peak demand is around 550MW. He added that it is being met by 3 units at Morupule B (450MW nominal) and the balance from SAPP, EDM (Mozambique) and ESKOM. Kebonang stated that Unit 4 at Morupule B is scheduled to come back on line in July 2017, at which point 100 percent of national demand will be met for the duration of the winter.
