The Erongo Battery Energy Storage System, also Erongo BESS, is a planned battery energy storage system installation in
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
. The BESS, the first of its kind in the country and in the
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
n region, will be capable of providing 72MWh of clean energy to the Namibian grid.
Location
The BESS unit would be located at the site of
NamPower
Namibia Power Corporation, commonly known as NamPower, is the national electric power utility company of Namibia. The company is responsible for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the country. Its activities are lice ...
's ''Omburu Substation'', approximately , southeast of the city of
Omaruru in the
Erongo Region, in central Namibia.
The geographical coordinates of this location are:21°29'49.0"S, 16°01'40.0"E (Latitude:-21.496944; Longitude:16.027778).
Overview
The BESS station has storage capacity of 58 megawatts. Its design allows for a discharge capacity of 72MWh of energy into the Namibian grid. The BESS is expected to store "locally generated renewable power as well as electricity imported from the
Southern African Power Pool (SAPP)". The electricity will be stored at off-peak times, when it is cheaper. The stored energy can then be discharged "during peak times".
The intended benefits include (a) stabilization of NamPower's grid (b) act as a back-up, if and when existing generation facilities fail (c) reduce the cost of electricity fed through the SAPP.
Developers
The BESS station is under development by the
Namibia Power Corporation (Pty) Limited, who own the station. The development receives support (financial and technical) from the
German State-Owned Investment and Development Bank (KfW). In December 2021, KfW made a grant of €20 million towards the development of this project, estimated at 80 percent of total cost. NamPower is expected to contribute about 20 percent of the cost and pay any outstanding taxes not covered by the KfW grant.
In December 2023, NamPower selected a consortium of two Chinese companies to jointly develop the power station. The
engineering, procurement and construction
Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts (a type of turnkey contract) are a form of contract used to undertake construction works by the private sector on large-scale and complex infrastructure projects.
Overview
Under an EPC co ...
(EPC) contract was awarded to a joint venture between ''Shandong Electrical, Engineering & Equipment Group'' and ''Zhejiang Narada Power Source''. Construction is expected to start in Q1 2024 and commercial commissioning is planned for H2 2025.
See also
*
List of power stations in Namibia
*
Battery storage power station
*
Balama Solar Power Station
References
External links
NamPower gets N$400m battery system grantAs of 21 December 2021.
{{Authority control
Power stations in Namibia
Erongo Region
Renewable energy power stations in Namibia