BERA increases focus on energy security
Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority ( BERA) plans to focus more on the promotion of energy security and transformation of the sector through effective facilitation of investment in the infrastructure development by the regulated sub- sectors.
This was said by the Chairperson, Fanile Mathangwane, in the company’s latest annual report. BERA is the regulator of energy activities in the country, which among others include electricity generation, gas, solar, petroleum among others.
There is also the need to improve regulatory efficacy and enhance the energy legislation, regulation, and governance. “We also expect to see an increased investment in the renewable energy by the private sector,” said Mathangwane. Lately, a number of renewable energy projects, including those carried by Independent Power Producers have commenced. Last week, Botswana Power Corporation signed a deal for the development of 4 megawatt with France’s Akuo Energy and Folosha Investments, a citizen owned company. The state- owned power utility is also expected to sign more similar deals in the coming months.
BERA supports renewable energy projects. “In our endeavour to contribute to the acceleration of the development of Renewable Energy projects in Botswana with private sector participation, we are currently sourcing funding from African Development Bank ( AfDB) for these projects through our parent Ministry,” wrote Chief Executive Officer, Rose Seretse in the 2020/ 2021 annual report.
“We are at an advanced stage of the grant application from AfDB for the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers procurement programme. This programme intends to strengthen the enabling environment for private sector participation to establish the necessary instruments such as Grid codes, Cost of Supply study and associated tools.”
Furthermore, Mathangwane has announced that, the Authority will heighten performance monitoring of the regulated sectors with the view to improve their financial performance, commercial quality of service and technical quality of sup
ply. “This is in line with the national Energy Policy objective of reliable, safe, and affordable energy services, as well as two of Authority’s key responsibilities: Ensuring that interests between consumer, customer and licensee are adequately balanced; Protecting and preserving
the environment,” he further said.
The Authority has embarked in a number of initiatives geared towards ensuring fair competition and citizen participation within the petroleum and gas sector. In Botswana, the petroleum and Liquidified Petroleum Gas ( LPG) is controlled by foreign actors. Seretse announced that so far, two of these initiatives aimed at improving the above sub sectors are the LPG Market Study and Regulatory Impact assessment of aviation fuels pricing, which were completed in the 2020/ 21 financial year.
BERA is also duty bound to inspect various facilities where the energy sector players operate from, including petroleum filling stations. According to Seretse, one hundred and fiftyeight ( 158) petroleum retail facilities were inspected against the targeted two hundred and seventy ( 270).