Southern Africa delays upgrade to power trade

HARARE (Reuters) - Southern African countries have delayed to December 15 the launch of a more competitive regional power trading system, meant to boost pooling of electricity across the region, an official said on Tuesday.

The launch was originally set for the start of November.

"There have been some delays with that project and we will now launch around 15 December," Alison Chikova, chief engineer at the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), told Reuters, but declined further comment.

Only 5 percent of all power traded in southern Africa is in the short-term energy market, with prices set by the seller and administered by SAPP. The rest is exchanged via bilateral long-term contracts with fixed tariffs.

But SAPP is testing a more competitive system, where prices will be set based on demand and supply between the utilities in the countries where the power pool operates.

The new system could also see the introduction of other players, including independent power producers.

A more flexible and active electricity trading pool could be a blueprint for the rest of the continent, where little electricity is being traded, and help Africa battle acute power shortages by giving access to excess capacity.