The effectiveness of the Southern African power pool in alleviating electricity shortages in the Southern African countries: a case of Zimbabwe and South Africa

Abstract

The major objective of the research was to assess whether SAPP has improved the availability of electricity in Southern Africa. The other sub objectives were to examine whether SAPP has facilitated the development of a competitive electricity, evaluate the extent to which SAPP has coordinated electricity trade in within the Southern African countries as well as establish the challenges faced by SAPP in alleviating electricity problem in Southern African countries. Southern Africa is facing its most severe power crisis in decades despite having the potential to generate enough energy to meet its demands and even export surplus. The idea was also to develop policy recommendations and methodologies that will enable Southern Africa to realize its energy potential. Southern Africa is characterized with high dependence on fossil fuels for its energy requirements and this has proved costly to the regional economies and its development priorities, yet the country is blessed with abundant resources with a great potential if tapped. Data gathering was done using self-administered questionnaires and interviews and analysis of existing relevant documents concerning the topic in question. The population of the study consisted of electricians, engineers, principal managers/managers and directors employed within Zesa, Min of Energy and Power Development, SA Embassy as well as Southern African Power Pool. From this target population, a sample of 94 participants was drawn and out of these. In this case, 70 (100%) questionnaires were distributed to the targeted population and only 64 were returned giving a response rate of 91.4%. It remains, that the overall response rate of 91.4% was achieved, which is sufficient to analyse the subject in hand. The reason for high response rate is attributed to the fact the topic was of interest to the respondents. SPSS and content analysis were used to process the data, thus a number of key findings emerged from this research. From the findings, it was shown that SAPP has made great strides in alleviating power shortages in the Southern African countries. The findings also indicated that progress was being undermined as a result of other factors which include inadequate infrastructure and lack of funding on the part of governments. The research also established that, the concept of energy democracy is possible to implement. The information from the research led to the following recommendations: Zimbabwe should improve its business climate; Policy consistency on the part of the governments; A sovereign wealth fund must be created to cater for new renewable energy projects; a. To alleviate the availability of electricity there is need for SAPP to provide more funds on maintenance of the existing and new infrastructure; to improve power generation SAPP member states must invest heavily in infrastructure development and maintenance; to enhance electricity availability SAPP must fulfil its objectives in order to achieve the intended goal of alleviating electricity shortages in Southern African Countries; in addition, SAPP must source funding and investment for capital intensive projects, most member states like Zimbabwe are not bankable and cannot easily get lines of credit but can benefit from loans extended to SAPP for projects since it has membership. Power generation should be decentralized just to name a few