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Namibia Power Corporation, commonly known as NamPower, is the national electric power utility company of

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 company is responsible for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the country. Its activities are licensed, supervised and regulated by the ''Electricity Control Board'' (ECB) of Namibia.

Location

The company headquarters are located at NamPower Centre, 15 Luther Street,

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

Khomas Region Khomas is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its name refers to the Khomas Highland, a high plateau landscape that dominates this administrative unit. Khomas is centered on the capital city Windhoek and provides for this reason superior trans ...

, Namibia. The geographical coordinates of the company headquarters are 22°33'17.0"S, 17°05'07.0"E (Latitude:-22.554722; Longitude:17.085278).

History

NamPower was founded in 1964 as the ''South West Africa Water and Electricity Corporation'' (''SWAWEK'') by the government of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. SWAWEK was introduced as a company of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of the Republic of South Africa. The early history of the company revolves around the Kunene River hydroelectric project. In 1996, several years after Namibia's Independence, the company was renamed ''NamPower''.

Operations

NamPower operates 3 major

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

generating facilities: #

Ruacana Hydroelectric Power Station The Ruacana Hydroelectric Power Station is a hydroelectric power plant near Ruacana in northwest Namibia, close to the Angolan border. Commissioned in 1978, it is by far the largest power station in Namibia. Its operator is NamPower, the Namibia ...

, a hydroelectricity power plant on the

Kunene River The Cunene (Portuguese spelling) or Kunene (common Namibian spelling) is a river in Southern Africa. It flows from the Angola highlands south to the border with Namibia. It then flows west along the border until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It ...

Ruacana Ruacana is a town in Omusati Region, northern Namibia and the district capital of the Ruacana electoral constituency. It is located on the border with Angola on the river Kunene. The town is known for the picturesque Ruacana Falls nearby, and fo ...

at the

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

n border, with installed capacity of 347 megawatts #

Van Eck Power Station A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across ...

, a thermal facility located in Windhoek, powered by coal, with installed capacity of 120 megawatts # ''Anixas Thermal Power Station'' in

Walvisbay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The ci ...

, powered by diesel, with generation capacity of 22.5 megawatts. There is also one standby diesel power station in Walvisbay, ''Paratus Thermal Plant'', with 18 megawatts.

Renewable Energy Projects

NamPower conducted a pre-feasibility study on the ''bush-to-electricity'' concept. The concept foresees the utilisation of excess woody biomass, of which the country possesses an estimated 200 million tonnes due to

bush encroachment Woody plant encroachment (also called bush encroachment, shrub encroachment, woody encroachment, bush thickening, or woody plant proliferation) is a natural phenomenon characterised by the increase in density of woody plants, bushes and shrubs, ...

Bush encroachment Woody plant encroachment (also called bush encroachment, shrub encroachment, woody encroachment, bush thickening, or woody plant proliferation) is a natural phenomenon characterised by the increase in density of woody plants, bushes and shrubs, ...

is the growth of bushes and trees at the expense of grass and is caused by

overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature res ...

and climate change. In 2015 NamPower initiated the feasibility study on bush-to-electricity and formed a dedicated biomass project unit. Results and an investment decision are expected for late 2016. A 20 megawatts biomass power plant requires an annual supply of 150,000 tonnes of chipped biomass, which can be supplied from within a radius in many regions of Namibia due to high bush densities (10 tonnes/ha).

References

External links