Botswana

Population: 
2.3 million
GDP Growth: 
4.5%
Installed Capacity: 
735 MW
Electricity Access: 
65%
Bilateral Partnership: 
Botswana Energy Partnership
Regional Partnerships: 
Southern African Power Pool (SAPP)
Generation

Botswana Energy Partnership

The partnerships with Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) began in 2001 and ran for two years.  The partnership conducted activities with several U.S. utilities instead of partnering with just one U.S. company.  The key issues for this partnership were capacity building in operations; maintenance and planning; operating under a deregulated environment; power system studies; and customer service.  The partnership results were a company-wide review of the software used for internal IT and system planning; the planning tools to evaluate the viability and process for building a new generation facility to decrease their reliability on generation imports; and the development of a succession plan to capture the expertise of outgoing senior staff.

Regional Cooperation

Southern African Power Pool

Botswana is a member of the Southern African Power Pool through the Botswana Power Corporation. USEA formulated a partnership with the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) to allow the member countries and various operating committees the opportunity to participate in executive exchanges with U.S. and overseas power pools, Independent System Operators, and regulatory agencies dealing with cross border trade. The key issues for this partnership were dealing with regional energy markets; regulation; cross border tariffs; and wheeling and legislative reforms. The partnership resulted in rewriting the current by-laws in regards to membership and voting rights to allow for the inclusions of IPPs, and updated power pool plan, and a regional frequency and environmental guidelines that are more in line with other international standards.

The Energy Utility Partnership Program (EUPP) is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI) and implemented by the U.S. Energy Association (USEA). EUPP works around the world to promote energy security, clean energy access, and capacity building to achieve self-reliance. The contents of this webpage are the sole responsibility of USEA and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.