Residents of Kayova village in the Ndiyona Constituency have called for the resources of NamPower and the Northern Regional Electricity Distributor (Nored) to be combined into one entity in order to make electricity cheaper.
Residents of Kayova and its surroundings made the request at a meeting called by Nored on Wednesday to explain why the Ndiyona area experienced the most frequent power outages in 2021 and 2022.
Community members said they would prefer for government to shorten the electricity supply value chain by incorporating NamPower’s responsibilities into that of Nored to make the cost of electricity bearable for the end user and to end power outages.
Last November alone, power outages were experienced in the Ndiyona area 16 times, translating into over 190 hours. The area also experiences frequent power failures during the rainy season (January to March).
It was revealed in the meeting that some businesses such as lodges spend up to N.dollars 20 000 on diesel for their generators during power failures.
Affected residents complained about food getting spoiled and said the Nored call centre and regional offices are not helpful when contacted.
Nored’s Executive of Technical Services, Petnen Frans touched on many topics such as Namibia’s electricity supply value chain, the causes of power failures in the area, as well as power failure interventions.
“Fifty-eight per cent of the electricity customers pay for is used on the cost of importing electricity from South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, while NamPower spend 21 per cent on transmitting electricity. Nored only gets 16 per cent of what customers pay for distribution, while the rest goes to the supplier,” Frans said.
Currently, N.dollars 100 gets customers 45 units of prepaid electricity.
On his part, Nored Chief Executive Officer Fillemon Nakashole said for him it would be ideal if they could come to an agreement where NamPower only focuses on transmission and generating electricity to ensure that Namibia has enough power stations for it to become a net exporter, while REDS take over the responsibility of distributing electricity.
“Nored is finding it hard to service its over 100 000 customers with the small number of electricians it has. This is why power outages also take longer than required. We cannot cope with the manpower we have due to a lack of resources,” he said.
Nakashole said the electricity supplier faces many challenges, thus the idea of NamPower focusing on transmission is not be bad as it could lead to a reduction in tariffs.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
