24 Feb 2025

Energy security and universal access to energy remain critical catalysts for regional integration and true economic development across all sectors and SADC member states.

Speaking during the SADC energy week in Gaborone on Monday, SADC executive secretary, Mr Elias Magosi said the region continued to face power shortages primarily due to inadequate infrastructure development across the board and in recent times the debilitating effects of climate change.

“Currently, in terms of the regional energy mix, coal makes 60 per cent of electricity generation, while hydro-power is at 24 per cent with renewable energy trailing at around 10 per cent,” he said.

Mr Magosi said climate change had laid bare limitations to ascertain a sustainable energy supply and its security.

“We do not only have to grapple with our limited and very difficult ability to minimize pollution from fossil fuels but also we must contend with  harsh droughts that have made us extremely vulnerable to continue our dependence on water resources,” he said. To address this, Mr Magosi said urgent and robust investments were needed in power generation, transmission and diversification into renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, in addition to deliberate efforts by all to adopt and ensure energy efficiency at all levels. He said efforts were afoot to interconnect Angola, Malawi and Tanzania to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) network, to ensure that the region exploited excess power in some countries and to reduce the deficit in others.

He said a regional approach was crucial to expanding energy markets, optimising infrastructure development and addressing the intermittency of renewable sources.

Additionally, Mr Magosi said it was equally important to address the issue of affordability head on as well as the creation of an enabling environment for the increased participation of investors and other players including the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and independent Transmission Systems Operators (TSOs) in the Energy Supply Industry (ESI).

“We have observed that member states, through the establishment of energy regulators, are slowly migrating towards cost-reflective tariffs with a pro-poor element, to ensure that basic electricity needs are met on monthly basis while promoting investment in the energy supply industry,” he said.

He said it was also encouraging to note that some of SADC member states had introduced almost zero electricity connection fees to tackle the issue of affordability and access, which he said was commendable and worth replicating across the region.

To that effect, Mr Magosi said the SADC secretariat was also coordinating implementation of strategic frameworks to enhance energy access, improve energy security while promoting sustainable energy solutions.

These, he said included the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Strategy and Action Plan (2016) to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency adoption and the Regional Energy Access Strategy and Action Plan (2020) to support off-grid technology development for rural energy access.

He indicated that the energy infrastructure projects required substantial financial resources, which governments often lacked. ENDS