Renewable Energy Support and Access Accelerator Project

The development objective of the Renewable Energy Support and Access Accelerator Project for Botswana is to enable renewable energy grid integration in Botswana and improve electricity service in selected rural areas. The project comprises of three components. The first component, grid upgrades to enable integration and management of variable renewable energy (VRE) consists of following sub-components: (i) support: the design, supply, installation, commissioning, and operation and maintenance (O and M) of utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) for an estimated capacity and energy of approximately 50MW/200MWh, and the owner’s engineer, who will assist Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) in the supervision of the BESS procurement, construction and commissioning; (ii) installation of static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) at selected substations (planned at Francistown 1, Legothwane, Segoditshane 1, and Ramotswa (132 kV networks)); and (iii) digital upgrades of network control and customer services to enable monitoring of loads and improve operation efficiency, maintenance and planning. The second component, local transmission and distribution (T and D) network upgrades to support rural electrification aims to increase reliability of power supply for existing and future customers in rural villages of Southern districts, by supplying them with reliable domestic power and reducing import of electricity from South Africa. The third component, project management and technical assistance (TA) to support VRE deployment is expected to play a key role in enabling private sector investments and in supporting the utility in this business model transition. It consists of following sub-components: (i) project management; and (ii) VRE deployment.