Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has halted the issuance of new licences for power generation dedicated to export in a bid to improve domestic electricity supply.
The moratorium came into effect on 5 March and will be in effect for 18 months or such time that existing transmission network problems have been fixed.
According to the Electricity Control Board (ECB) of Namibia, under the current Modified Single Buyer (MSB) model, electricity generators are permitted to construct additional generation capacity within Namibia for exportation.
However, due to the constrained transmission capacity on interconnections with neighbouring nations and beyond Namibia’s borders, the ECB saw fit to suggest an embargo on licence applications.
“Exempted from this moratorium are non-variable energy generation plants and variable energy generating plants with battery storage solutions that are willing to invest in dedicated transmission infrastructure and whose operations will have no impact on the current grid stability and capacity limitations and subject to availability of evacuation capacities on the two interconnections to the SAPP market,” the ECB said.
In 2019, Namibia implemented the MSB Model, a system enabling contestable customers and licensed eligible sellers to directly engage in transactions for supplying electricity, covering up to 30% of the customer’s energy needs.
Last year, the ECB granted export licences totaling 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) under the Modified Single Buyer (MSB) market model.
These licences were for exporting electricity to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). Nevertheless, the authorised export amount surpassed Namibia’s transmission capacity of 780 megawatts (MW) via the national utility NamPower grid.
Currently, three IPPs are operating under the MSB market model, including Rosh Pinah Solar Park (5.7MW), Skeleton Coast Trawling (2.6MW), and Namibia Poultry Industries (3.1MW).
