The Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) limited has commenced the importation of electricity to supplement the national power supply.
ZESCO Spokesperson Matongo Maumbi said effective May 1, 2024, the Corporation began importing electricity to supplement the national power supply, following the reduced generation due to poor hydrology.
Mr. Maumbi explained that the decision was arrived at because the country is currently experiencing limitations in power generation due to hydrological challenges.
“The imported electricity will constitute approximately 20 percent of the total available power for at least 12 months. The power utility will have reduced control over the stability and scheduling of this imported power source,” he said.
Mr Maumbi said ZESCO understands the importance of reliable electricity and regrets any inconvenience these potential disruptions may cause.
“The Corporation remains committed to providing it’s customers with stable and reliable electricity. The Corporation is actively working to address the limitations in domestic power generation and will continue to update customers on any developments,” said Mr Maumbi.
At a press conference a journalist asks HH about loadshedding.
HH: Have you been loadshaded?
Journalist mumbles some answer.
HH: You don’t have loadshedding because of the background work that we have been doing quietly.
Three days later Zesco announces that it will introduce power rationing.
A fawning manager apologizes for ” misleading” the president… but information had it that it was the president who did not want loadshedding.
To save face the president goes to Kariba Dam to look for a nonexistent leakage in the dam wall.
It sees some Zambians are in denial that El nino has caused drought in the Southern African region. All countries in the region apart from Mozambique are experiencing major power shortages and loadshedding consumers.
If you cant understand the effects of El nino , then we have a problem much bigger than loadshedding in Zambia.
@Independent, we all know about elnino. You are the one who is in denial. We have had reduced rain for sometime now but your president was always in denial even promising to end loadshedding. If you just use a bit of your common sense you will have noticed that I was not talking about HH producing power despite the drought…my point is he thought he was cleverer than everyone else…. like exporting our maize stocks… you people are dull.
ZESCO and Zambezi River Authority engineers and their Chinese contractors bungled up the last rehabilitation works. They failed to calculate the throughput for the Chinese turbines, making the gates too high. Water is now draining the dam faster and being wasted. Also, the turbines installed were unknown and consume too much water to operate for similar output as the original smaller turbines. This loadshedding may be a regular feature every year rain fails. Before, last year’s rainfall would have compensated this year’s low rainfall + delayed loadshedding. Engineers who tried to correct things were silenced after the contractor complained to PF bigwigs who instructed senior management to control their Juniors. Another PF legacy
It’s high time you stopped using the PF excuse. Load shedding was there even under Levy because the rains have been reducing…. after all you promised to stop loadshedding, now do it without finding excuses.
There is no harm with ZESCO and INDENI partnering with the privately owned Nola HFO Power Plant to expand its generating capacity from the current 105MW to even 400MW.
The Ndola HFO power plant is really no different those Turkish powerships which would dock in Mozambique and supply power to ZESCO.HFO power plants provide a very reliable back up when hydro, solar and wind power generation fails.
Its ridiculous that repurposed INDENI company is only using the TAZAMA pipeline to transport Diesel . At the minimum , even in its current state , the TAZAMA pipeline should transporting batches of DIESEL , HFO and KEROSENE. Thats how pipelines are efficiently utilized in other parts of the world.
The HFO and tranmix (mixing between the batches) will be used to produce electricity for the grid on demand.CLIMATE CHANGE IS HERE TO STAY
Absolutely no harm with ZESCO and INDENI partnering with the privately owned Nola HFO Power Plant to expand its generating capacity from the current 105MW to even 400MW.
The Ndola HFO power plant is really no different those Turkish powerships which would dock in Mozambique and supply power to ZESCO.HFO power plants provide a very reliable back up when hydro, solar and wind power generation fails.
The UPND govt is not transparent about how much electricity is being exported (to SA). GRZ needs to install more base load power generation and should look to coal and bio energy. KBF few weeks also stated that there is a lot of potential in micro-hydro power schemes. An energy indaba needs to be organized where all stakeholders will be invited including industry, academia, environmental activists, civil society, etc should participate. We are supposed to be in a position of supplying our neighbors with electricity.