Energy regulators to discuss carbon emission reduction

The Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (BERA) will host fellow energy regulators from Southern Africa from February 25 to March 1 in Gaborone.

Headlined by Vice President Slumber Tsogwane, the annual conference of the Regional Energy Regulators Association (RERA) of Southern Africa will be held under the theme, ‘Regulators’ Role in Improving Energy Security and Reducing Carbon Intensity’.

According to BERA’s Marketing and Communications Officer, Tshepang Monare, the theme was chosen in consideration of the fact that the world is currently trying to reduce carbon emissions in order to achieve global warming and climate change targets.

At the same time, many economies are trying to become energy secure by exploiting their ‘dirty’ resources such as coal.

“Meanwhile, the pressure on these economies to decarbonise their energy resources is increasing. The conference will therefore discuss how such economies can achieve both energy security and reduce carbon emission.

“The theme is meant to stimulate discussions around this question and provide practical approaches to achieving these goals,” he said.

RERA was established in 2002 following a resolution by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers of Energy. Botswana joined in 2018 following the formation of the Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (BERA).

RERA’s main objective is to foster regional cooperation and ensure integration of the region’s energy infrastructure, exploit the benefits of economies of scale and shared resources and create a framework for transactions in the regional energy market.

In line with the SADC’s strategic objectives, RERA hopes to leverage on the complementarity of diverse regional energy resources, invest in low carbon energy and address cross border regulatory trade.

Monare further said regional integration will assist the regulators to share information, expertise and experiences as well as build a case for development of regional energy infrastructure.

“RERA has had some success thus far as it has been able to set up regulatory guidelines for cross border power trading as well as investment framework for SADC power projects,” he said.