THERMAL POWER PLANT TO COST ABOUT E12BN

LOBAMBA – Setting up a thermal power plant will cost government about E12 billion, Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Jabulile Mashwama told Parliament yesterday.

She said preliminary activities towards the start of this major project were underway, like the prospecting process of coal.
This is a process led by the Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) using the services of prospecting consultants.
Results of the prospecting will be available by the end of the year or early next year.

The minister was addressing senators during a portfolio committee debate on the ministry.
Government’s dream of a thermal power plant is well documented, and the major motivation behind it is the desire to lessen the country’s dependency on imported electricity. SEC imports over 80 per cent of its electricity from South Africa’s power utility company, Eskom.

“The continued heavy dependency on Eskom is risky, so government is on a mission to see to it that local generation of power is expanded. That is why local Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have been urged to produce more electricity. If there is a surplus it will be exported to other countries,” explained Mashwama.

But in the meantime, the insufficiency of electricity was felt by all countries in Southern Africa and the minister said this was why any country that generated a surplus would be able to get customers outside its borders.

Mashwama highlighted, however, that the cost of generating one’s own electricity was much more expensive than buying it.
She said it often became a challenge for SEC to strike a deal with an IPP that sold its units at a slightly higher cost than those obtained from Eskom.

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