The Orapa Power Station is a Peak load power generation plant located in the mining town of Orapa in northeastern

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

in the Central District. It is built within the Debswana Diamond Company Ltd Orapa diamond mine fenced leased area and owned by the Government of Botswana who mandated the

Botswana Power Corporation Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is a state-owned company for electrical power generation, transmission and distribution in Botswana. It was established in 1970 and is currently the only electricity supplier in the country. BPC represents Botswan ...

to manage, operate and maintain the facility.

Background

The plant construction was initiated when

started experiencing electricity supply challenges from year 2007 when demand for electricity in the

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

started exceeding the county's electricity generation capacity leading to forced periodic nation wide

load shedding Demand response is a change in the power consumption of an electric utility customer to better match the demand for power with the supply. Until the 21st century decrease in the cost of pumped storage and batteries electric energy could not be ...

excises by the

. The plant was a short term response to the mining industry electricity requirements prior to the development of Mmamabula and Morupule B power stations. The plant site is located next to an electrical substation through which it connects to the national grid and was designed to use either

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

or diesel as fuel. It was commissioned using diesel with a planned conversion to

once construction of a

gas pipeline Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...

from nearby gas fields was complete and commissioned.

Specifications

The plant consists of two 45MW

GE LM6000 The General Electric LM6000 is a turboshaft aeroderivative gas turbine engine. The LM6000 is derived from the CF6-80C2 aircraft turbofan. It has additions and modifications designed to make it more suitable for marine propulsion, industrial po ...

Sprint Simple Cycle gas turbines fueled using diesel. The energy produced is transferred to the national grid via the interconnected Orapa Substation by use of two short 132kV overhead power lines.

References

{{Reflist Fossil fuel power stations in Botswana

Background

Specifications

See also

References