Mozambique’s publicly owned electricity company, EDM, will provide 100 megawatts of non-firm power to Botswana, under a contract, valid for a year, signed on Thursday between EDM and the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC).
The capacity agreed under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) seeks to help meet the growing demand for electricity in Botswana. But the supply of power by EDM will be subject to a request by BPC, and the availability of surplus power from the Mozambican grid.
During the signing ceremony in Gaborone, EDM chairperson Marcelino Alberto stressed the new opportunities for the energy market of SADC (Southern African Development Community), that will be created when the new gas-fired power station at Temane, in the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane, begins to operate.
President Filipe Nyusi laid the first stone for the construction of this power station in March. The combined cycle Temane power station, fired by Mozambican natural gas, will generate 450 megawatts, making it the largest new source of electricity in Mozambique since independence in 1975.
The electricity will feed the Mozambican power market, and the surplus will be exported. EDM’s strategy is to generate foreign currency for the country through the export of electricity and to consolidate Mozambique’s position as a regional pole for power generation.
This is not the first time EDM has exported electricity to Botswana. It did so between 2003 and mid-2017. And in April 2019, it exported 70 megawatts to Gaborone for a period of five months.
