The Southern African Countries are set to create new power projects to help add 2763MW of power in the region by 2015.
According to officials from the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) 45 percent of the capacity expected to be acquired will be from renewable energy sources. This comes in place after the Southern African countries agreed in 2012 to increase the uptake of cleaner energy sources which help in the reduction of carbon emissions.
The energy experts in the region set a long term target of achieving at least 32 percent by 2020 and an additional 35 percent by 2030.
At the moment, The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is working on 13 projects with most of them coming from South Africa. DR Congo is also coming in closely with 430MW set to be added to its power sources later in the year.
At the moment coal stands as the largest contributor in powering the region with South Africa’s Medupi Power Station expected to generate more than 738MW by the end of the year.
Gas powered plants are also taking shape with five projects to be commissioned by SAPP said to be gas fired.
A major share of the capacity added will be added from Independent Power Producers (IPP) with an addition of 32 percent.
Zimbabwe currently has 4 IPP hydropower stations with Pungwe expected to be commissions this year with an additional 15MW to the grid. Mozambique IPP stations include the Ressano Garcia and Kuvanianga power stations with addition of 175MW and 30MW to the grid.
If all proposed projects stream then SAPP will commission 24 062MW between 2015 and 2019.
