The Southern African Power Pool hosted a workshop in Sandton to discuss the Pool Plan of 2017 which focuses on providing reliable and economical electricity supply to the Southern African Development Community.
The Southern African Power Pool was established in 1995 to create greater cooperation among 12 governments in the southern Africa region and planning of power generation facilities for the mutual benefit of the regions.
The Pool Plan aims to identify possible development and investment in the energy sector to provide adequate electricity supply to the region that is efficient and environmentally and socially sustainable.
Going forward, the Southern African Power Pool has committed resources to continue updating the planning assumptions in the Pool Plan to ensure that it constantly reflects the rapidly changing regional environment.
Some of the highlights of the plan include regional integration, which will result in savings in investment and operation costs and the increased supply of electricity through renewable energy including hydropower.
Stephen Dihwa, the Southern African Power Pool Coordination Centre manager said, “Our vision is to facilitate the development of a competitive electricity market in the southern African region. We tend to give the end user a choice in electricity supply and we would like to ensure that the southern African region is the region of choice for investment.”
Dihwa explained that the Southern African Power Pool was the most interconnected of the power pools in Africa and was regarded as the most developed and was focused on addressing its challenges immediately to realise the goal of the whole continent being interconnected through one power pool.
Peter Robinson of Economic Consulting Associates which developed the Pool Plan said for the region as a whole there were various benefits which included savings in the energy sector, particularly from the investment side and job creation. South Africa particularly benefits from the Pool Plan as the largest consumer of electricity within the pool.
Details: Southern African Power Pool info@sapp.co.zw
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