Nampower's Proposed Coal-Fired Power Station, Walvis Bay
The west coast of Namibia is experiencing significant economic growth in the Erongo Region, mainly as a result of the industrial developments related to uranium exploration and mining. To meet the increasing power demands and reduce Namibia's historical dependency on South Africa for electricity, the Namibian Power Corporation (Pty) Ltd (NamPower) proposes to increase its electricity generating capacity in Walvis Bay. The current national peak is approximately 550 MW, of which South Africa supplies a significant portion, especially during the dry season, i.e. when the Kunene River Flow is far below the requirements to operate the Ruacana Power Station on full base load. The proposed power station will augment the base load supply. The power station could be built by an Independent Power Producer (IPP), in line with the Energy White Paper. NamPower would provide the transmission connection to its national grid and purchase all the electricity from the IPP.
Construction of power generation facilities with an output of 1MW or more is identified as an activity requiring authorisation from the Directorate of Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET:DEA), in terms of the Environmental Assessment Policy of 1994. Ninham Shand (Pty) Ltd (Ninham Shand) has been appointed by NamPower to undertake the ESEIA process required for decisionmaking, according to the regulatory requirements in terms of the Environmental Management Act of 2007 and the Environmental Assessment Policy of 1994.
Current Project Phase
This Final ESEIA Report has been submitted to MET:DEA for decision-making and has been made available for information purposes. The project comprises the following:
- A 200MW to 800MW (comprised of 200MW, 250MW, or 350MW generator units) coal-fired power station with associated coal stockyard, ash disposal facility and transport systems to deliver coal and potentially seawater to and from the plant; and
- A 100 MW multi-fuelled (diesel and heavy fuel oil) black start / emergency generation facility located at the coal-fired power station site or in the vicinity of the existing Paratus power station site.
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