Windhoek — NAMPOWER exported a significant amount of electricity to South Africa during April and May after good rains earlier in the year resulted in the Kunene River flowing strongly.

"When the Ruacana power station on the Kunene was running at full capacity during the last two months, NamPower used to sell electricity to South Africa's power utility Eskom," NamPower confirmed to The Namibian late yesterday.

Responding to written questions, John Kaimu, Corporate Affairs and Marketing Manager of NamPower, said electricity was sold during off-peak periods - from 23h00 to 24h00 and from 01h00 to 05h00.

"An average of 30 megawatt (MW) per hour was sold, totalling 5 389 MW for April and May 2008.

With the reduced flow of the Kunene River and consequent reduction in output, the projection for June looks different," Kaimu said.

"A total of 345 MW was also sold to other utilities through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) trading arrangements."

Namibia has an electricity supply capacity of 384 MW but peak demand has shot up to about 450 MW, mainly due to increased mining activities.

About 200 MW is imported from South Africa to make up the shortfall.

Recently NamPower started importing 40 MW from Zimbabwe, which will increase to 80 MW soon.

Namibia provided a US$40 million loan to Zimbabwe last year for the rehabilitation of the Hwange coal-fired power station in that country.

Kaimu was also asked if NamPower intended to add a third furnace to Windhoek's Van Eck power station.

The Namibian had reliably learnt that a South African expert was in the country recently to hear if his company could sell more coal to NamPower, should another furnace be added.

Van Eck has an output of 120 MW.

"There are no plans to install a third chimney at Van Eck," Kaimu said.

"A study was carried out recently to determine the emission levels of Van Eck.

Laboratory results are still being awaited.

In the meantime, various options are being considered to clean the air [emitted from the two chimneys].

At the moment no decision has been reached as to what filtering devices will be installed."