BW Kudu’s bid to construct and operate its own electricity transmission infrastructure in Namibia remains on hold as the Electricity Control Board (ECB) develops rules to govern private participation in a segment where state utility NamPower currently holds a monopoly.
The company has applied for a transmission licence to develop a 400-kilovolt power line linking its proposed 420-megawatt Kudu gas-to-power plant near Lüderitz to NamPower’s Obib substation.
ECB Chief Executive Officer Robert Kahimise said the application raised broader regulatory questions over whether private electricity producers should be allowed to finance and operate transmission infrastructure required to deliver power from their projects to customers.
BW Kudu intends to fully finance the proposed transmission infrastructure, with electricity from the planned power station expected to supply both the Namibian market and customers in South Africa.
“It was triggered by the application by BW Kudu. BW Kudu applied for generation and also a transmission licence. That specific transmission licence was fully funded by BW Kudu as an investor to enable them to evacuate their power from the upstream to the power station,” Kahimise said.
NamPower, which currently holds a monopoly in Namibia’s electricity transmission sector, objected to the application after it was advertised by the ECB in May 2024.
The objection resulted in a public hearing at which NamPower and BW Kudu presented their respective positions on the proposed private transmission investment.
“There was an objection from NamPower as the monopoly currently. We held a public hearing where NamPower presented its position, while BW Kudu, as the applicant, also justified why it wanted to invest in and operate that specific portion of the transmission network,” Kahimise said.
The ECB Board subsequently recommended to the minister that BW Kudu’s proposed investment in the transmission infrastructure was justified.
However, the minister determined that the application should remain pending until a regulatory framework was established to govern private investment in electricity transmission.
The ECB has consequently started developing an Independent Transmission Company (ITC) regulatory framework and issued a request for proposals for consultancy services in August 2026.
The framework is expected to determine the conditions under which private investors can develop and operate transmission infrastructure and how those networks would connect to and interact with NamPower’s existing grid.
Kahimise said the issue has become increasingly important as private investors pursue large electricity generation projects requiring significant transmission capacity.
“We have seen a mismatch, or what I can call a misalignment, of the transmission company, in this case NamPower in Namibia, in how they respond to the demands and expectations of those private investors. We are talking about billion-dollar projects, and most of those projects are quite significant,” he said.
The BW Kudu case could therefore establish a regulatory pathway for other electricity developers seeking to finance dedicated transmission infrastructure for their projects.
Kahimise said the regulatory work also reflects wider changes in electricity markets, where vertically integrated utilities are increasingly being separated into generation, transmission and distribution functions.
“We have seen the unbundling of traditional vertically integrated utilities in the region and around the globe. I am talking about the unbundling of generation, transmission and distribution,” he said.
