Renewable energy boost for Namibia

Eleven of the fourteen projects which qualified for participation in Namibia’s Interim Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT) programme were commissioned by the end of last month and currently contributes to the country’s electricity supplies.

Briefing the media on Friday on the power supply situation in Namibia, minis and energy minister Tom Alweendo said all renewable energy projects that were been commissioned between April 2015 and September 2018 added a total of 67.5 MW of installed capacity. This equates to 15% of local generation capacity supplied by independent power producers (IPPs), which will increase to 41% by 2020.

According to Alweendo six solar PV IPP power plants are currently under construction and will be commissioned by December this year, adding an additional 72 MW. A second wind power plant will start construction soon and is expected to commissioned by 2020, adding a further 44 MW of renewable energy capacity.

In total about 183 MW of generation capacity will be added by IPPs by 2020, he said.

“This illustrates the increasing role of IPPs in Namibia’s electricity mix, and is testimony of the growing involvement of private sector entities in a steadily changing electricity supply industry,” Alweendo said.

He said the ministry is planning to install an additional capacity of 220 MW within the next three years to ensure the target of the Fifth National Development Plan (NDP5) and other national goals are reached. This is exclusive of any embedded generation or roof-top installation done regional electricity distributors (REDs), private companies and individuals.

The 220 MW allocation will be split as follows: 150 MW to NamPower and 70 MW to be allocated on a competitive bidding process as per current government procurement laws to IPPs for implementation purposes. Of the latter, 20 MW will have to be solar power by 2020 and 50 MW wind power by 2022.

Alweendo said the procurement process will be initiated in the coming months to ensure the timely commissioning of the power plants.

“I believe that a country with adequate power supply attracts investors and other subsequent benefits are guaranteed. The above projects therefore will go a long way in moving Namibia to being energy secure for the benefit of all Namibians,” Alweendo said.

By diversifying the country’s electricity sources to include renewable, Namibia will benefit from a least-cost supply mix, he added.

Overreliance

According to Alweendo, only 41% of the country’s energy demand in 2017 was generated locally. “While we appreciate and continue to foster strong relationships with our neighbours, who have thus far supplied our shortfall consistently, overreliance on imports of a strategic resource such as electricity poses a serious risk to our economy,” he said.

The minister said “commendable efforts” have already been made to reverse Namibia’s overreliance on imports.

A total of 19 IPPs have signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with NamPower to supply 175.5 MW of renewable energy generation projects by 2020.

The ministry has developed a national integrated resource plan (NIRP), spanning for 2016 to 2035. “It provides projections of the future electricity demand and identifies a mix of least-cost electricity generation options to meet the country’s electricity needs in a reliable and efficient manner,” Alweendo said.

Government in 2015 gazetted the net-metering rules, a methodology allowing electricity users to install their own solar electricity generation systems to generate electricity for their own consumption to reduce their dependence on the supply of local distributors.

Alweendo said as at last month, Namibia’s maximum demand stood at 652 MW.

“The country has a total installed electricity generation capacity of 557 MW. Although the installed capacity is 557 MW, the available capacity is 467 due to Von Eck Power Station which is capable of only delivering 30 MW from the installed capacity of 120 MW,” he said.