Eskom woes hit Botswana growth
2008-06-10 18:03
Gaborone - A power crunch that has hit southern Africa is expected to hurt Botswana's economic growth this year, central bank deputy governor O.A. Motshidisi said on Tuesday.
"The power shortage has hit us very hard, and it is going to
be one of the key constraints to growth this year," Motshidisi
said during the bank's presentation of its annual report.
The economy grew by 6.15 in 2006/2007. Botswana imports about 72% of its power from South Africa's state-owned power utility Eskom, which has been struggling to meet domestic demand and has reduced exports to its neighbours.
Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is investing 11 billion
pula in generating capacity to cut its dependence on imports from Eskom, chairperson Ewetse Rakhudu later told Reuters in an interview.
"Eskom has cut our imports by about 100 megawatts. We used to get about 350 megawatts from them, but that is now down to about 250. We expect that in the medium term our demand will grow and we need our own generating capacity," Rakhudu said.
The state firm has supplemented electricity by importing
more power from Mozambique's giant Cahora Bassa hydroelectric
station, Rakhudu said.
"The power cuts have been worse here. I hear they have
suspended them in South Africa, but here, it has been an ongoing nightmare and we think it might be worse as we go into winter," Rakhudu said.
"We really want to reduce our dependence on Eskom, because
they are under pressure with their own domestic demand and they
also supply the whole region. We are building a 600 megawatt
power station in Morupule which we expect to come into
commission by 2010," she said.
Rakhudu said the power firm had not worked out a financing
model with the government and was talking to a number of
financiers.
She said Botswana's total electricity demand was about 400
megawatts and it would rise in line with faster economic growth.
- Reuters