WSHPDR_2013_Final_Report-updated_version

1.4.4 Swaziland
Wim Jonker Klunne, Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research, South Africa
Key facts
Population 1,386,914 1
Area 17,364 km 2
Climate
Topography
Rain
Pattern
The climate is temperate in the west,
but may reach 40°C in summer in
Lowveld region.
The western half is mountainous,
descending to Lowveld region to the
east. The eastern border with
Mozambique and South Africa is
dominated by the escarpment of the
Lebombo Mountains.
Rainfall occurs mainly in the summer
and may reach up to 2,000 mm in the
west.
Electricity sector overview
Power in Swaziland is supplied and distributed by the
Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC), which was
established in 2007 by the Swaziland Electricity
Company Act. SEC currently has a monopoly on the
import, distribution and supply of electricity via the
national power grid. The SEC also owns a majority of
the country’s power stations. There are five other
private power stations. A substantial amount (nearly
25 per cent) of energy used in Swaziland has been
self-supplied.
The SEC operates four grid connected hydropower
plants: Edwaleni (15 MW), Ezulwini (20 MW),
Maguduza (5.6 MW) and Maguga (19.2 MW)
installations. In December 2010, the SEC
decommissioned the small-scale 500 kW Mbabane
station, built in 1954, due to unprofitability.
A reform of the energy sector has been undertaken
recently to reduce the monopoly of the utility (it
changed from a board to a company in 2007), to
establish a regulatory body and to preserve the state
Approximately 80 per cent of Swaziland’s electricity is
imported from South Africa through the SAPP. The
remaining 20 per cent of the electricity requirement is
generated by hydropower (figure 1). Biomass,
especially wood fuel, constitutes about 90 per cent of
the total energy consumed and is still dominant for
use in cooking and heating in rural areas. Not only
biomass is the major fuel used by households, but it’s
also the major source of electricity self-generation in
the sugar, pulp and saw mill industries.
Small hydropower sector overview and potential
Currently, no official small hydropower definition
exists in Swaziland. The first electric lighting system to
light up at night in Swaziland was installed at Mlilwane
with a 42-kW small hydropower turbine operated by
James Weighton Reilly. Since then several public and
private hydropower plants have been installed in the
country, as well as hydraulic ram pumps to provide
water for steam locomotives at the Ngwenya mine.
SHP installed capacity
SHP potential
0.8 MW
0 2 4 6 8
Figure 2 Small hydropower capacities in Swaziland
Source: Knight Piésold Consulting 3
8 MW
Several studies have been conducted to estimate the
hydropower potential of Swaziland. In 1970, the
UNDP financed a study which identified 21 possible
sites for hydropower schemes. 4 Based on existing
information, the Environmental Centre for Swaziland
comes to a gross theoretical potential of 440 MW and
a technically feasible potential of 110 MW, of which
61 MW are economically viable. 5
The latest full study on hydropower potential in
Swaziland showed that there are a number of
potential micro (