Mainland member States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) plan to install an addiotional 30 646 MW of new electricity generation capacity by 2022.
Addressing delegates at the recent SADC Infrastructure Week, in Johannesburg, SADC Secretariat senior programme officer Mapolao Mokoena pointed out that, as at the end of April, SADC mainland member States had an installed generation capacity of 59 539 MW and an operating capacity of 54 397 MW, compared with a demand and reserve of 53 478 MW.
“The economic downturn and stable operations led to low peak demand, compared with 2015/16. Therefore, when taking into account the current peak demand and generation capacity reserve margins, the mainland member States have excess capacity of 919 MW,” she said.
Mokoena pointed out that the installed capacity in oceanic member States was 782 MW, 246 MW and 106 MW for Mauritius, Madagascar and Seychelles respectively.
These, she said, resulted in total installed capacity of 60 673 MW for all SADC member States.
Mokoena further pointed out that mainland member States had planned to commission 3 757 MW of generation capacity in 2016, but exceeded that target and commissioned 4 180 MW of new capacity, the highest since 2004.
Meanwhile, she said a significant digital divide, together with exorbitant tariffs, hindered the uptake of information and communication technology (ICT) services in the region.
“There is a digital divide across the region, with low-level access to ICT infrastructure and services. Prices for ICT services in the SADC [region] are far from international market rates.”
She highlighted that the region needed to be stimulated, adding that there were gaps in national and regional optic-fibre cable broadband networks.
“The SADC is trailing behind in competitiveness and socioeconomic development and there is a large gap in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, Connect 2020 and World Summit on the Information Society targets,” Mokeana said.
She encouraged SADC member States to work with one another to promote industrialisation and the implementation of high-quality infrastructure throughout the region.