The Electricity Control Board (ECB), in partnership with GET.transform, has launched a unified Embedded Generation Online Application Platform to digitise and streamline Namibia’s renewable energy connections.
The platform, which went live on September 1, serves as a centralised digital portal for application submission, real-time tracking, and regulatory oversight. By digitising these procedures, it delivers the following operational benefits:
- Faster application turnaround times
- Improved data availability for long-term power system planning
- Greater transparency and accountability for all market participants.
A core deliverable under the EU-GET.transform initiative, the platform aims to eliminate administrative bottlenecks, strengthen compliance monitoring, and support evidence-based decision-making across Namibia’s Electricity Supply Industry (ESI).
ECB Chief Executive Officer, Robert Kahimise, said Namibia was experiencing a steady rise in embedded and renewable generation, rooftop solar on homes, businesses and industrial premises, across towns and cities, and increasingly in rural areas too.
He said the digitised platform reflected growing investor and consumer confidence in Namibia’s energy future and supports the national ambitions for energy security and diversification.
Kahimise said the platform will improve application processing, tracking, data management and regulatory oversight across the board. Furthermore, utilities will be able to evaluate and approve applications faster and more consistently.
Potential clients can submit all their information about their system (size and equipment used) and then the utility will evaluate if it is suitable to connect to the network. The digitisation of this process reduces the waiting time for approval.
“Applicants will have real-time visibility of where their application stands. And, importantly, the ECB and our utility partners will, for the first time, have a consolidated, reliable dataset of embedded generation installations across the country, something we have not had before,” said Kahimise.
Namibia becomes only the third country in Africa to launch such a platform. South Africa was the first, launching theirs in 2024. Eswatini went live with their platform a day before Namibia did.
GIZ Namibia Country Director, Tobias Gerster, said the system was a necessity because electricity generation is changing faster than the regulatory frameworks that are meant to govern the practice.
“Consumers are becoming suppliers. Across the country, homes, businesses and institutions are adding solar power capacities and other embedded generation capacities. We do not know where they are and how much they produce,” he said.
Ana-Beatriz Martins, Ambassador of the European Union to Namibia, highlighted the platform’s role in advancing the nation’s energy transition.
“This is an exciting development that brings new opportunities for Namibia. Digitalisation can make regulating the sector more transparent. The aim is not to simply put applications online. It is to make it easier, faster, and more predictable to connect distributed generation while maintaining grid security and protecting consumers,” she said.
Over 40 employees from the REDs, the City of Windhoek, NamPower, and ECB have been trained to set up and use the new platform.
