JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Botswana-based Shumba Coal has concluded design and selection studies, as well as the preliminary financial modelling, for its proposed 300 MW Sechaba energy project (SEP), which the company planned to establish at its flagship Sechaba coal project.

These studies followed the completion of a power transmission scoping study earlier this year.

The Botswana Stock Exchange-listed Shumba had engaged global infrastructure engineering company Parsons Brinckerhoff (Power) to undertake conceptual studies for the proposed coal-fired power plant, including site, boiler technology and plant configuration assessments, a limestone consumption assessment and a conceptual design and description of the power plant based on the preferred boiler technology and configuration.

Based on these studies, the power plant was envisaged to comprise two 150 MW circulating fluidised-bed coal-fired power plants.

“This configuration was primarily chosen owing to the suitability of the unit size to the Botswana grid and the redundancy offered by the configuration,” Shumba said in a statement.

The power plant was also expected to feature a subcritical nonreheat steam turbine with dry air-cooled condenser technology.

Further, particulate matter control would be achieved through the use of electrostatic precipitators.

Shumba noted that the Sechaba coal resource was of a good quality and well suited to power generation, with the coal’s low sulphur content expected to reduce nonfuel power plant operating expenditures by 30% to 40%, compared with other alternatives.

The SEP would be capable of supplying power to the domestic and regional markets using existing power transmission infrastructure.