Namibia was last year more reliant than ever on electricity imports.
According to the IPPR Quarterly Economic Report, overall imports accounted for 71.2% of the total electricity supply, making Namibia acutely vulnerable to developments in the rest of the region.
The report noted that Namibia has long been a net importer of electricity from the Southern African Power Pool and has struggled over decades to build new domestic generating capacity and become more independent.
It further indicated that of the total supply of 4,097 gigawatt-hours into the system during the year, NamPower only supplied 816 gigawatt-hours.
Domestic Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariffs (REFIT) and other Independent Power Producers (IPP) supplied a further 364 gigawatt-hours.
Meanwhile, South Africa's Eskom supplied 1,253 gigawatt-hours, Zambia's ZESCO supplied 1,018, Zimbabwe's ZPC supplied 390, and a further 256 were purchases from the SAPP's expensive short-term energy market.
The report noted that for years, NamPower's generating capacity was limited to the Raucana power station, which contributed 24% to the electricity supply last year.
ZESCO contributed the most to the electricity supply with 32%, Eskom with 18%, ZPC and IPPs with 9%, and other sources with 6% and 2%, respectively.
NamPower is working on constructing additional generating capacity as part of its Integrated Strategic Business Plan 2020–2025.
These are the 58-megawatt Omburu Battery Energy Storage System, which is the first of its kind in Namibia and is a tripartite grant funded by Germany, NamPower, and the National Planning Commission.
The 40-megawatt Rosh Pinah Wind Power Project is designed to provide renewable energy outside the typical solar PV dispatch profile.
A N$1.2 billion 50-MegaWatt Anixas II Power Station, which will be developed to provide backup power to stabilize the grid, as well as the N$1.6 billion Otjikoto Biomass Power Station that will use encroacher bush as fuel,
The power utility will also develop a N$300 million 20-megawatt Khan solar PV project and a N$1.4 billion 50-megawatt Ludertiz wind power project.
However, the report says progress in these projects is not as fast as it needs to be and will not be sufficient to completely end the import of electricity.