USAID Southern Africa Energy Program Namibia Country Profile

In Namibia, the program focuses on expanding power generation and access to electricity, particularly in rural areas. Namibia's national electrification rate stands at 56 percent, with the majority of the population residing in rural areas without access to electricity. The country currently imports about 60 percent of its electricity from surrounding countries, making it essential to reduce imports by increasing domestic energy generation. To achieve this goal, SAEP provides technical assistance to various public and private stakeholders in their efforts to expand power generation and increase access to electricity. One of the key initiatives supported by SAEP is the peri-urban electrification program in Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia. The program aims to expand access to electricity in urban areas, particularly in informal settlements where up to 30 percent of the city's population resides. SAEP assisted the City of Windhoek in developing an approach to accelerate the rate of electrification of households in peri-urban settlements by researching and presenting options of business models with private sector participation and a financial model to show the viability of each of the models. Another key initiative supported by SAEP is the integration of distributed renewable energy into the grid. CENORED, the Central North Regional Electricity Distributor, is looking to integrate higher proportions of solar photovoltaic (PV) into its network and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to manage the variability from potential renewable energy plants. SAEP assisted CENORED in modeling and analyzing the incorporation of BESS into its grids and provided input to CENORED's tender documentation and draft power purchase agreement. SAEP also supported the development of an overall framework for mini-grids in Namibia. The Electricity Control Board (ECB) accepted SAEP's support to estimate the tariff that would be required to make a mini-grid sustainable. Using the existing ECB tariff methodology, SAEP prepared a hypothetical tariff for a mini-grid using data from a mini-grid in Tsumkwe in Northern Namibia. The results help inform Namibia's overall mini-grid framework. In addition, SAEP supported the Mega Solar initiative, a commitment to large-scale solar development between Power Africa, the Governments of Botswana and Namibia, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Union Development Agency, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Finance Corporation. The Mega Solar initiative centers on the competitive procurement of 2 to 5 gigawatts of solar power in Namibia and Botswana by 2040. SAEP supported Power Africa with a white paper on the possibilities for such an initiative, which has proven to be a useful guide for the governments of Botswana and Namibia as they advance large-scale solar development. SAEP also provided policy support for Namibia's National Integrated Resource Plan through a review and inputs to the terms of reference in 2020. Furthermore, SAEP supported CENORED to analyze the potential use of BESS to manage solar variability. SAEP worked with the City of Windhoek to electrify more households in informal settlements and trained 14 CENORED employees on technical and financial aspects of mini-grids in July 2018.