Abstract
Adequate supply of affordable energy, particularly electricity, is crucial for the economic sustainability of industrial and mining operations. Stakeholder engagement and management can be applied in electricity supply industries to enable the electricity regulatory authorities to safeguard the interests and rights of the electricity suppliers and consumers and to ensure affordability. While the electricity supplier companies must recover their costs, the end-user consumers hope for competitive and affordable electricity tariffs.
In Namibia, electricity prices increase annually, and this financially challenges mines and other energy-intensive users. The motivation for this work was the observation that although the mines were recognized as relevant stakeholders in the electricity supply industry in Namibia, their engagement in the electricity tariff setting process was not clear. The hypothesis for this research work is to deliver a fair and affordable electricity tariff. An optimum system is required for the engagement and management of stakeholder interest in setting electricity tariffs.
This research reviewed literature on a broad spectrum of stakeholder management processes and frameworks. Further exploration was conducted on how the stakeholder management process was applied in the electricity sector to create opportunities for the mine’s participation in electricity tariff settings. This review helped to define the crucial stages in the stakeholder management process and a vision for a world-class stakeholder management process. With the stakeholder process distilled from literature, the research further analyzed the content of national documents within the Namibian electricity supply industry, with a key interest in finding evidence for stakeholder management best practices. To achieve research objectives, a qualitative research method was applied, whereby each stage of the stakeholder management process was analyzed in these national policies and reports of the Namibian electricity sector. The document content was analyzed with the aid of ATLAS. ti software. The thematic analysis method was followed by a systematic analysis of the generated qualitative data.
Armed with the results of the findings, the application of stakeholder engagement and management in Namibia's electricity supply industry for electricity tariff settings was benchmarked to other developed electricity sectors in Australia, Brazil, and the Netherlands, as well as to developing electricity markets of Sierra Leone, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The existing tariff determination and approval process in Namibia was found to be semi-formal and designed primarily for primary stakeholders. Hence, this research recommends a formal, structured and inclusive electricity tariff setting methodology. The findings of this research provide insight, learning, and contribute to the body of knowledge in three ways.
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Firstly, through theory building on stakeholder management,
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Secondary, enhancing the development of national policies and
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Thirdly, improving stakeholder management practice in the Namibian electricity supply industry.