Public institutions and households to be electrified

The Minister of Mines and Energy intends to electrify public institutions and householdsduringthe2023/2024financialyear.

Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo said this during his recent 2023/2024 budget statement in parliament, where he revealed that the public institutions to be electrified includes schoolsandclinics,amongothers.

The minister added that the ministry intends to electrify 78 rural public institutions and 180 households with a capital budgetofN$54millionthatwasallocated to the ministry to ensure security of electricitysupplyinthecountry

The minister revealed that the ministry has several projects in the pipeline that are expected to provide 224 Megawatts (MW)ofelectricity

He said that these projects, will be commissionedbeforetheendof2025withthe commissioning of these projects come after the ministry commissioned a 20MWpowerplantlastyearinOmaruru,in theErongoRegion.

AccordingtoAlweendo,theministryalso electrified a total of 21 schools during the 2022/ 2023 financial year and 57 similar projectsareunderway

He added that the ministry's Solar Revolving Fund also financed the electrificationofabout400householdsata costofN$12million.

Besides this, he said, the ministry is developing an electrification support mechanism that is intended to guide the country towards achieving universal access to electricityby2040.

Alweendo added that in the electricity supply sector, his ministry is consistently working to improve energy security and accesstoelectricitytohouseholdsandinstitutions.“Inthisregardcabinetapprovedthe updatedNationalIntegratedResourcePlan (NIRP2022).”

The plan provides a roadmap to reach a minimumof80%ofourelectricityrequirements to be supplied locally by 2028," he said.