Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) signed agreements with South African state-owned power utility Eskom and JSW Energy to combat the country’s power crisis due to the almost baron dams as a result of low rainfall this season, Business Standard reported.

SEC’s Managing Director, Meshack Kunene, said that in early October the company signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Eskom, to supply 100% of the country’s power needs. This came because four of Swaziland’s hydro power stations do not have sufficient water resources to operate, informed ESI Africa.

Moreover, JSW Energy signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SEC and the government to set up a thermal power plant. Accordingly, the Kingdom of Swaziland will guarantee a long-term PPA, supply the facility with coal resources, and facilitate the acquisition of required approvals.

Kunene noted that the country’s Maguga dam has not been running for 10 months and the Luphohlo dam has been idle since the beginning of October. As a result, there wasn’t enough pressure to generate electricity. The depleting dams have been on SEC’s radar for the past few years having not received enough rains for power generation over the course of three years. Kunene further revealed that before the drought SEC used to have six months for generation power, between October and March. He said this was the period which they used to harvest water and store it for electricity generation.