By: Nghiinomenwa-vali Hangala
In January 2025, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Southern Power Pool combined to supply 53.3% of Namibia’s electricity, according to the monthly compilation by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA).
This has proven to be a situation that is prevalent every month, as the country struggles to meet its industrial and household energy demands.
In January 2026, local generation contributed 46.7 percent (214,134 MWh) of the total electricity supplied to the domestic economy, while imports accounted for the remaining 53.3 percent (244 058 MWh).
This distribution is consistent with the pattern observed between July and November 2025, when imports similarly constituted the majority share of electricity supply, states the NSA. South Africa remained the largest supplier of Namibia’s electricity imports, providing 51.8 percent of total electricity imports, followed by Zambia with 27.3 percent and Zimbabwe with 16.0 percent.
The Eskom Orange River and the Day-Ahead Market (SAPP) ranked fourth and fifth, contributing 4.8 and 0.1 percent of electricity imports, respectively.
In terms of local generation, the Ruacana Power Station was the leading contributor, producing 165,271 MWh (77.2 percent), followed by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) with 43,178 MWh (20.2 percent).
The Omburu PV Solar Power Station contributed 5,510 MWh, representing 2.6 percent of
local generation.
Additionally, Anixas 2 Diesel Power Station ranked fourth, supplying 173 MWh (0.1 percent), while Anixas 1 Diesel Power Station produced the least with only 3 MWh (0.0 percent).
Meanwhile, Van Eck Power Station did not generate any electricity during the period under review.
Total domestic electricity sales stood at 317,935 MWh in January 2026, up from 311,270 MWh sold in the preceding month, but below 326,862 MWh recorded in January 2025.
The largest share of domestic sales was absorbed by Redistributors – LPU (68.1 percent), followed by the mining sector (22.9 percent) and Eskom Orange River (3.7 percent).
Electricity sales to farms accounted for 1.4 percent of domestic consumption.
The ‘Agriculture & Irrigation’ and ‘Commercial – LPU’ categories ranked fifth and sixth, contributing 1.3 and 0.8 percent, respectively.
During the period under review, Namibia also exported a total of 83,387 MWh of electricity.
The majority (97.2 percent) of electricity exports was destined to STEM Sales – SAPP.
Botswana was the second-largest export market, accounting for 1.4 percent of total exports, while South Africa and Angola contributed 0.8 and 0.6 percent of total electricity exports, respectively.
erastus@thevillager.com.na
