Power Invest says the proposed Nathaniel Maxuilili Power Plant in Walvis Bay is projected to cost over N$14 billion to develop and generate approximately 586 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
The estimate includes the complete power plant development and GasPort construction at Walvis Bay.
Power Invest anticipates the first phase of the project to be complete by 2024 with production beginning the same year.
The company said the electricity to be generated by the power plant is targeted to feed the national grid and the region, with the main aim of addressing growing energy demands in the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP).
“We aim to have the first phase of the power plant ready to send energy into the grid by the end of 2024. The entire project should be completed by mid-2026,” Power Invest Managing Director Hennie Steyn told The Brief.
The project is expected to create between 40 to 50 jobs in the initial phase.
“The project will employ between 300 to 400 people during construction and about 40 to 50 when it is in operations,” Steyn said.
The power plant which will be gas powered, has already secured a licence from the Electricity Control Board.
“The Electricity Control Board of Namibia on 28 January 2022 approved the new generation and export Licences for the Nathaniel Maxuilili Power Plant. The ultimate goal remains to provide low-cost baseload electricity to the region which will allow for rapid expansion of renewable energy,” he said.
The plant will be a source of stable baseload and energy security that is critically required in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Southern Angola and South Africa
Namibia, which currently imports 70% of its energy supplies, could become a net energy exporter.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be supplied to the plant by Walvis GasPort (WGP), a Namibian natural gas company. WGP will import LNG, regasify it and then pipe it to the power plant.
The power plant will be located behind Dune 7 at Walvis Bay, in an area earmarked for heavy industrial development.
While the state-of-the-art gas turbines will be used to produce the power, which will be distributed to off-takers via a 220kV line and sub-station.
“Flexible and agile, the Nathaniel Maxuilili Power Plant will be very different from conventional, coal-fired power stations that take many years to plan and build, have high levels of emissions and use vast quantities of water for cooling,” Steyn said.
