BY MBONGENI NDLELA
MBABANE – The Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) has recently released its Shared Value Report for the year ended 31 March 2021. Here is what they had to say about their financial contribution and expansion projects for the year:
Delivering societal value through our core purpose
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION
The EEC has managed to post decent operating results in recent years despite very difficult operating conditions. However, the company’s profitability has restricted the movement of people and goods. This forced scarcity of raw material and constrained the supply of finished goods. Engineers could not travel to witness factory acceptance tests for critical equipment thus some of the finished goods were not packaged to expectations and denied the transfer of knowledge between the client and manufacturer.
Below are some of the projects the EEC invested in:
Southeast Grid Reinforcement Project
This project was initiated solely to increase the load capacity of the grid from 23,757MW to 43,928MW
by 2035. The main beneficiaries of the project are sugar cane farmers from LUSIP II Extension project and the Mkhondvo – Ngwavuma Water Augmentation Scheme, surrounding communities, small to medium commercial customers, etc. The project comprises of the construction of a switchyard at Sinceni, 40km 132kV and 12km 66kV overhead transmission lines, expansion of Ncandvweni substation from 3MVA to 40MVA 132/66/11kV and 10MV substation at Ndzevane. The project was successfully completed and commissioned in March 2021 for a total cost of E200.2 million including E52.1 million was capital contribution of ESWADE for the LUSIP II Extension Project.
Edwaleni – Stonehenge 132kV Transmission Project
This project aims to address the inherent risk of failure of the existing single circuit 40km by 132kV line by constructing a second single circuit 52km 132kV line to avoid power blackout to 60MW of critical city load.
The project was planned for December 2021 but has suffered massive delays since the project contractor underwent liquidation in October 2020. It is now envisaged that completion shall be towards the end of 2022.
Our core purpose of providing energy for the future aligns with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These SDGs articulate what a better future means and helps us set a clear long-term plan to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. We aim to sustainably create value through our core business of increasing access to reliable and accessible energy and we continue leveraging our network expansion to help us achieve the goals envisaged by the UN. This also enables us to meet national and global development objectives, such as rebuilding economies severely affected by COVID-19, while simultaneously promoting inclusive and sustainable action as we recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Network Reinforcement and Access Project – 8000 homesteads to benefit
87 km of new electricity lines
This is a World Bank loan funded project that is divided into four components. Component 1 is to construct an 87km 132kV overhead transmission line from Nhlangano to Lavumisa together with three substations at Hluthi, Matsanjeni and Lavumisa. Component 2 is aimed at increasing access to electricity in the Shiselweni Region as part of the Eswatini government’s initiative to attain universal access to electricity through the Rural Electrification Programme. The beneficiaries in Component 2 will be about 8000 homesteads that will be connected to grid electricity by the end of the implementation of this project.
Component 3 is aimed at providing government with the technical support required to implement various programmes to improve the conditions for the electricity industry in the Eswatini. Component 4 is a special dispensation designed to serve as access to Emergency Funds for qualifying emergency conditions. Completion of the project is planned for December 2023.
Other Transmission Expansion Projects
The EEC continues to improve the reliability of the transmission infrastructure required to enhance
service delivery. Such projects include the upgrading of Malkerns, Siphocosini and Pigg’s Peak substations.
There is also an ongoing feasibility study and engineering design for a new 50km 132kV overhead transmission line to reinforce the load capacity of the North-Eastern Grid comprising mainly of the sugar cane growing customers and their communities from Simunye to Balegane. The study shall also include conducting the ESIA, ESMP and resettlement action plan (RAP).
EEC has devised a generation expansion strategy that seeks to diversify electricity generation technologies. The current dominant generation technology is hydropower followed by solar photovoltaic technology. Both technologies are limited by the availability of resources, which are driven by their seasonality. The hydropower generation is generally dispatched during the peak hours to curb the maximum demand and the high energy cost during the peak period, especially during the high season (June, July & August). The utility-scale solar photovoltaic is only available during the daytime, meaning that the electricity requirement for the country is largely borne by imports.
Lavumisa 10MW Solar PV Plant and Sigcineni Off-Grid Solution Project – E224.5 million Invested
The Lavumisa 10MW Solar PV project is part of the 2018/2021 Corporate Strategy to increase internal generation of the country and to reduce reliance on been on a declining trend over the past 3 years – a 14% decrease from the 2020 profit alone.
