Pretoria - Eskom and Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) have signed a three-year power supply agreement.
“Eskom and Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) have signed a three-year firm power supply agreement, a move that is in line with Eskom’s plan to increase its electricity exports to South Africa’s neighbouring States,” said Eskom on Wednesday.
Eskom currently has excess capacity of about 4 000MW, excluding an operating margin.
Last Friday, Eskom’s Interim Group Chief Executive Matshela Koko met his BPC counterpart, Dr Stefan Schwarzfischer, to conclude the power supply agreement and to discuss other areas of potential cooperation.
“The conclusion of this agreement serves to demonstrate our commitment to the SADC region to provide energy security and certainty with regard to long-term supply of energy. Eskom reaffirms its position that we are open for business and stand ready to undertake further long-term supply agreements, for up to 10 years, with our various trading partners,” said Koko.
Schwarzfischer said the new power agreement offers BPC improved security of supply and presents the company with a window of opportunity to tackle some of the major challenges it faces.
“We look forward to further collaboration with Eskom to further improve our energy and various technical aspects of the electricity business,” said Schwarzfischer.
Eskom and BPC have had a long-standing energy trading relationship. The transmission corridor between South Africa and Botswana provides one of the key corridors for energy trading for the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).
This corridor, being integrated in the wider SAPP network, provides a facility for various SAPP utilities to exchange power, depending on their requirements. Eskom is currently investigating a number of strategic transmission projects to further strengthen the interconnection with BPC and other interested SAPP members.
These new interconnections are intended to further support regional integration, provide reliable transportation of power to grow the regional economy, as well as mitigate drought risk by improving the connection between the thermal and hydro systems in the region.
The agreement between BPC and Eskom is the second firm power sales agreement that Eskom has signed recently, having concluded a five-year power sales agreement with the Namibian national power utility, NamPower. – SAnews.gov.za
