The Civil Engineering Contractor February 2019 | Page 38

SAPP member states
plan more transmission
interconnectors
BUSINESS INTEL
Batoka Gorge will be the third dam on the Zambezi River.
By Eamonn Ryan
Ministers of the Southern
African Development
Community (SADC) have
accepted a strategy
proposed by the Southern
African Power Pool (SAPP)
that can save the region
USD36-billion in installed
capacity by 2040, by
avoiding rigidity due to
excessive ‘committed’
megawatts.
T
his is in comparison to adopting
an alternative plan whereby
each country individually
develops its own power needs over the
period. The savings come from sharing
surplus capacity through an integrated
transmission network.
Three plans were prepared by
consultants to deliver the same
36 | CEC February 2019
amount of power: the installed
capacity in Plan C (the approved
option) is 130GW, 3GW higher
than B and 14GW lower than A. The
overall cost of C is USD259-billion,
only USD5-billion higher than B but
USD36-billion (or 12%) lower than
the total cost of A.
Moses
Ntlamelle,
SADC
senior energy officer, described
the SAPP ministerial decision
to adopt SAPP Plan of 2017 as
a guiding document to direct
development of power generation
and transmission in the region:
• It directed the SADC Secretariat,
in collaboration with SAPP
Coordination Centre, to convene
dissemination workshops at
national level on SAPP Plan 2017,
as it is expected to add value in
the review and development of
national integrated resource plans;
• 
It urged member states to
develop their National Integrated
Resource Plans, taking into
account the SAPP Plan 2017,
and to invest and develop
interconnector corridors to
enhance flexible power trading in
the region; and
• 
It commended the World Bank
and other co-operating partners
for their support to develop
the SAPP Plan, which will be
incorporated in the remaining
action plans of the Energy Sector
Plan of the Regional Infrastructure
Development Master Plan
(RIDMP) 2018–2027.
The 2017 Pool Plan (PP) was
prepared under the SAPP planning
subcommittee, with technical work
performed by a team drawn from five
consultancy firms.
Three options
The three options (called ‘components’)
were explained by Peter Robinson,
director: Africa Region at Economic
Consulting Associates and team leader
of the consultants to the SAPP, speaking
at a workshop hosted by SAPP at
the Sandton Convention Centre on 28
November 2018.
“The objectives of the 2017
SAPP Plan are to identify a core
set of generation and transmission
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