On the adaptation of South Africa experience to combine solar energy and Smart Grid in Namibia

The challenging and vitiated situation of electricity in Namibia is addressed in this paper. The country is importing about 53% of its electricity from the neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. This has caused high price of electricity in the country and by extension imposes financial burden on the citizen. In order to alleviate this problem and reduce high dependence on imported electrical power, several solar energy pilot projects have been implemented in the country. On the other hand South Africa is among the countries with experience in Smart Grids. Based on the experience of a residential house with a monthly load greater than 500 kWh using Smart Metering and a solar Photovoltaic panel connected to the grid in South Africa, this paper shows that this experience is feasible and can be successfully adapted in Namibia.