Botswana

Botswana’s power demand at peak times of about 600 MW is currently met through Morupule B, the Orapa 90 MW diesel plant, another 70 MW peaking plant near Francistown and imports from Eskom. The Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is responsible for electricity distribution in Botswana. BPC is increasing the capacity of the Orapa diesel peaking plant to 195 MW. The government had decided to cap BPC’s total contribution at 1 200 MW, leaving scope for Independent Power Producers thereafter.

Thermal Power Stations

• Morupule A Power Station is a coal-fired power station near Palapye, Botswana with an installed capacity of 120 MW. The 600 MW Morupule B facility, which was built by China National Electric Equipment Corporation, has been beset with delays and machine failures.

• The Orapa 90 MW Power Station was commissioned in August 2011. The power plant will be used for peak load and will run with diesel in a first stage.

• The Francistown 70 MW Power Station is located approximately 30 kilometers outside of Francistown, in eastern Botswana.

The Mmamabula coalfield has 2.4 billion tonnes of thermal coal of a quality suitable for export, for local power generation and for coal gasification.. Jindal Steel and Power said it planned to invest up to $700 million to develop a coal mine and a 300 MW power plant to be completed by 2018.


Solar power

The Government plans 100 MW of solar power for the country’s north-west region.