The Projects | Energy
On Tuesday Tlou Energy, the Botswana Stock Exchange listed energy development company announced that the contract for the construction of the transmission line to connect the Lesedi Power Project to the Botswana’s electricity grid has been signed.
Transmission Line Construction
The Lesedi Power Project (“Lesedi”) is located approximately 100 Km from the existing electricity grid in Botswana. The first stage of development will be the erection of wooden poles fitted with an overhead 66kV transmission line, capable of supplying up to 25MW of power into the grid.
The line will commence at Lesedi and run across predominantly flat, arid terrain. The final ~5 Km traverse the outskirts of the Serowe township, where the line will join the existing grid.
Zismo Engineering Pty Ltd (“Zismo”) has been engaged to construct the transmission line. Based in Botswana, Zismo is an experienced, electrical engineering, contracting, automation and refurbishment company.
Zismo expect to mobilise plant and equipment onsite in the coming weeks. The project is expected to take approximately 15 months to complete. The Company will provide further updates as the line progresses.
Tlou’s Managing Director, Mr Tony Gilby commented, “Commencement of transmission line construction represents a new and exciting phase for the Company aimed at delivering on our huge gas-to-power potential and starting the monetisation process for our considerable gas reserves.
We very much look forward to working with Zismo on transmission line construction and achieving first revenue.
It has taken a long time but what has been achieved to this point is outstanding. We are extremely grateful to our stakeholders and investors for staying the course.
Having secured the first tranche of BPOPF funds allowing us to get Zismo started on the transmission line we are now progressing additional power off-takers as well as exploring further ways of monetising our enormous gas reserves.
The existing two production pods continue to flow gas and perform in line with expectations given these are only two pods in a very large basin. Additional wells should assist the dewatering process and result in higher gas flow rates.
Tlou has 100% ownership of a very large quantity of gas which will become increasingly valuable with time as a cleaner and reliable energy source in this part of Africa.
Step by step, we are making solid progress towards becoming a leading clean energy supplier in the region.”
Substation Construction
In addition to the overhead lines, substations will be installed at Lesedi and Serowe. The Lesedi substation will integrate the generation assets with the transmission line and the Serowe substation will tie in with Botswana Power Corporation’s existing infrastructure. This work will be completed by OptiPower, a division of Murray & Roberts Ltd.
The substation contract is due to be signed later, with completion scheduled to tie in with completion of the overhead lines.
