WINDHOEK: Namibia is facing a power supply shortage, a situation that will continue to prevail for the next three to four years.

NamPower Managing Director Paulinus Shilamba announced on Tuesday that the next four years will remain critical to Namibia, as the power supply deficit and associated challenges will continue to prevail until the commissioning of a new base-load power station by 2016.

During a media briefing on the progress of NamPower’s projects and initiatives aimed at addressing the power supply situation in Namibia, he called on the public to reduce their electricity usage by a minimum of 10 per cent to help avoid the possibility of load-shedding.

Namibia will experience a power supply deficit of 80 megawatts (MW) from the winter of 2012.

Shilamba said the national demand for electricity has increased to 530 MW from 451 MW recorded in 2009, and by 2016, the demand is expected to be in the region of 750 MW.

All power utilities in the region, including NamPower, have thus initiated a number of generation and transmission projects to try and meet the ever-increasing demand for power supply.

Given the challenges of implementing large-scale projects, such as the timespan of such projects, NamPower initiated the Short-Term Critical Supply (STCS) project, under which a number of short and medium-term initiatives will be implemented to address the immediate power supply shortages.

Projects that will be implemented as part of the STCS project include demand-side management initiatives; rehabilitation of the Van Eck Power Station; replacing the turbine runners at the Ruacana Units One and Three; negotiating new and extending existing power-purchase agreements; and investigating the acquisition of emergency diesel generators.