African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

Energy Pooling through Interconnectionof Electricity GridsThe creation of the Southern African PowerPool (SAPP) in 1995 to link the SADC memberStates to a single electricity grid can be considereda major achievement of SADC in the energysector integration. The utilities currently participatingin SAPP are Angola’s Empresa Nacionalde Electricidade (ENE), the Botswana PowerCorporation (BPC), the Democratic Republicof the Congo’s Société Nationale d’Electricité(SNEL), the Lesotho Electricity Corporation(LEC), Malawi’s Electricity Supply Commission(ESCOM), Mozambique’s Electricidadede Mocambique (EDM), Namibia’s NamPower,South Africa’s Eskom, Swaziland ElectricityBoard (SEB), Tanzania’s Electric Supply CompanyLtd (TANESCO), Zambia’s ZESCO Ltdand the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority(ZESA). SAPP’s Coordination Centre, locatedin Harare, Zimbabwe, commenced operations inFebruary 2000 (ECA-ARIA, 2003).Completion of the Matimba-Insukamini interconnectorlinking South Africa’s Eskom andZimbabwe’s ZESA grids in October 1995 wasa major accomplishment in operationalizingSAPP as it initiated the first linkage of systemoperations between the northern and southernsystems in Southern Africa. The northern systemis primarily composed of ZESA, ZESCOand SNEL, and the southern system is primarilycomposed of Eskom, BPC and Nampower.Although the power grids of Angola, Malawiand Tanzania are not yet connected with otherSAPP member grids, interconnection plans forthe three countries are in varying stages of development(ECA, 2003).SADC has a surplus electricity generating capacityestimated to be as high as 11 000 MW in1999. This capacity was reduced to about 7 700MW in 2000 (allowing for a 20 per cent reservemargin and excluding non-interconnected countries),mainly due to the increase in the Eskompeak demand to 29 188 MW in 2000, whichwas 1 375 MW above the 1999 peak demand(see table below). At a conservative estimate of$US 1 million per megawatt (MW), the capitaltied up in surplus capacity is considerable inthe region ($US 7.7 billion). This highlights theimportance of SADC having a strong interconnectedpower system to transfer power from areaswith surplus capacity to where the demandexists (ECA-ARIA, 2003).HARNESSING ENERGY FOR DEVELOPMENT227