EFF NATIONAL SHUTDOWN - SOUTH AFRICA AT STAGE 6 OF LOAD SHEDDING IN THE EYES OF A NAMIBIAN

Terminating a contract on basis of supplier bankruptcy, acquisition or considerable management change is very much legal.?

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I would thus assume power supply agreements are a sort of forcefully milking an over-milked cow.??It does not help that we keep South Africa (SA) glued to the power supply obligations when we can clearly see the damage and how their economy is going in shambles.?

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South Africa and its economy continue to face the negative consequences of the ongoing power crisis. The foreign business owners have massively begun to pull out, they are selling their houses and leaving back home every day as the power crisis continues to spike up and now at Stage 6 with obviously frequent load shedding.

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Nevertheless, they are still “intact” on the delivery contractual obligations they have with Namibia. Clearly, charity does not start at home in this crisis.

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But on the other hand, it must be alarming to us Namibians. Questions are naturally arising, the fear of a power crisis in our motherland is constantly ringing in our minds. What if South Africa just cannot provide us with required amounts of power? What if delivery impact was not carefully mitigated at the point of the contract and in proportion to the contract duration? And yeah, Zambia is undergoing a crisis too though not critical as South Africa’s. All in all, the 2 countries are having power crisis and we sit here content with our local power supply alternative.

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Though we are confident in what we have, there are alternatives we can explore. Certainly, a broader horizon of options can never be a bad idea.

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1.???Can we loosen regulations to permit solar projects that write into the grid?

2.???If the proceedings from power consumption is what is used to meet our financial obligation in this agreement,

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2.1.?????????????????Do we have fixed installments or

2.2.?????????????????Or we settle on Pro rata basis?

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Either way, we can find a way to meet our financial obligation while we explore other substantial means on the side. Such means could:

1.?????Namibia is exposed to heat seasons for more than 60% of the year. This is a strong advantage as we can encourage more but regulated solar energy setups and utilization. Let us cover the desert with solar plants.

2.????There are frequent strong winds in the southern parts of the country, which makes the area suitable for wind energy harvesting.

3.????The Ruacana hydropower station can be complemented by the advancement of other reservoirs and dams.

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But we have Green Hydrogen on the move.

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Yes, Green hydrogen is the in thing and I love how we are actively pursuing this dream. But this requires trillion dollars to bring it to realization and it is extremely time demanding and exigent. Moreover, each passing day is possibly a day closer to a South African situation worsening and indirectly impacting the Namibian economy.?South Africa is Namibia's most important economic partner and holds approximately 80% of all investment in the key industries of mining, retail, banking, and insurance. South Africa supplies Namibia with other daily usage goods. For all these items to be manufactured or processed, power is directly or indirectly involved. Even though the measure of the impact of load shedding on production processes is not yet statistically quantified and validated, it is fair enough to assume that there is direct impact.

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How awesome will it be if we produce 70% of our electricity? What a relief will that be to consumers??

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Adversity is an activator for innovation. Perhaps, this adversity has come about to make us independent to an extent too. Can the Ministry of Mines and Energy and NamPower change the narrative??