[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
DAM-L Southern African Power Pool/LS (fwd)
----- Forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----
From owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net Wed Aug 9 19:45:48 2000
Return-Path: <owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net>
Received: from DaVinci.NetVista.net (mjdomo@mail.netvista.net [206.170.46.10])
by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id TAA27728
for <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Wed, 9 Aug 2000 19:45:47 -0400 (EDT)
Received: [(from mjdomo@localhost)
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) id e79NfC521768
for irn-safrica-list; Wed, 9 Aug 2000 16:41:12 -0700 (PDT)
(envelope-from owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net)]
Received: [from [192.168.1.215] (router.irn.org [170.1.98.117])
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) with SMTP id e79Nf8u21753
for <irn-safrica@netvista.net>; Wed, 9 Aug 2000 16:41:08 -0700 (PDT)
(envelope-from lori@irn.org)]
X-Sender: lori@pop3.netvista.net
Message-Id: <v02140b16b5b7ab24fa3e@[192.168.1.215]>
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 16:44:18 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
Subject: Southern African Power Pool/LS
Sender: owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk
Regional Electricity Trade Surges Ahead
The Namibian (Windhoek)
August 7, 2000
By Christof Maletsky
Windhoek - Interstate trade of electricity
within the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) has increased by 15 per cent,
despite being hampered by civil
conflicts in Angola and the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).
Speaking to The Namibian on the sidelines of
the SADC summit at the end of last
week, SADC Regional Energy Co-ordinator Joao
Caholo said while progress had
been made on the regional trading aspect of
power, priority should be given to
bringing political stability to the region as
a whole.
Caholo said the Southern African Power Pool
(SAPP), launched in 1995 when 12
SADC members signed an agreement on its
formation, was progressing well with
the institute to co-ordinate its activities
recently opened in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The SAPP is a loose, regional electricity
power pool, governed by 'gentlemen's
agreements' which plans to introduce on-line
cross-border electricity trading over
the internet.
The organisation aims to create a mechanism by
which members can trade power,
buying from suppliers with the best terms and
selling to those offering the best
prices.
However, high-capacity electrical transmission
lines are needed to connect the
various national networks.
So far only two powerlines make up part of the
power pool vision: the
Matimba-Insukamini line between South Africa
and Zimbabwe and the 400kV
powerline from Aries near Kenhardt in South
Africa to Kokerboom near
Keetmanshoop in Namibia.
The latter is one of the longest transmission
lines in Africa and Namibia's largest
public works project.
It forms the western leg of southern Africa's
power grid and will link South Africa,
Namibia, Angola and the DRC.
But Caholo said there was good co-operation
and trade between the Zambia,
Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique,
Swaziland, South Africa and the DRC
at the moment and this could improve with
stability in the region.
"Southern Africa has great energy potential.
It is one of the richest regions in terms of
energy and water.
The major setback is infrastructure and
political instability which has not allowed
the region to tap 100 per cent or at least 60
per cent of what it can offer," he said.
Caholo said the region was blessed with mighty
rivers in the north and fossil
reserves in the south, all of which could be
used by the power pool.
The idea was to have a network that would
permit large-scale trading of power from
the DRC in the north to the continent's
southern tip (South Africa), and from
Namibia in the west to Mozambique in the east.
There was also a greater trend within the SADC
towards restructuring power
utilities in order to optimise the use of
generation overcapacity, thereby lessening the cost of capital expenditure.
The challenge for the pool is to create
synergies between regulators of the different states in order to facilitate
the move towards
a competitive environment that will open up investment opportunities for power
generating utilities.
A SADC energy sector brief dished out to
reporters at the summit this week indicated that some 80 per cent of the SADC's
population live in rural and peri-urban areas with no access to
electricity, while 75 per cent of the total energy consumed by the
residential sector was
wood-fuel based, which contributes to environmental degradation
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
----- End of forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----