From CajNewsAfrica via All Africa 

Namibian Power utility, NamPower, is pursuing extension of Power Purchase Agreements with some neighboring countries in a bid to subvert power outages.

The negotiations with South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are part of efforts to prevent shortages in the next three years when the Kudu Gas Power plant completes.

Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, NamPower Managing Director, Paulinus Shilamba, admitted that the country could be faced with a challenging power supply situation in the next few years but assured the nation that measures were being put in place to rectify the looming shortage.

“NamPower continues to negotiate PPAs with neighbouring power utilities especially Eskom (South Africa), ZESCO (Zambia) and ZESA (Zimbabwe).

“Negotiations are at an advanced stage for the import of additional 100 megawatts from ZESCO, 100mw from EDM and 80mw from ZESA,” said Shilamba.

“As previously reported NamPower concluded a due diligence study on the refurbishment of the Bulawayo and Harare coal fired power plants.

Results are promising and discussions have commenced with ZESA in this regard.

“Irrespective of what was reported in the media the current Zimbabwe deal has been a huge advantage for Namibia and I am confident that consumers would already have been load shed if we would not had this agreement,” Shilamba added.

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