Zambia has had to scale back on electricity generation to conserve water at the three main hydropower stations that account for over 95% of the country’s total output. There has been a 30% cut back in supplies to the vital mining industry – the country’s life blood. There are four-hour rolling power blackouts every day until the end of the year as the country scrambles to deal with a power deficit, the result of insufficient rainfall the last season that left reservoirs low.
Zambia relies almost 100% on hydro-electricity for its power. The projection was that there would be enough water for the state-owned electricity monopoly ZESCO Ltd, to generate 12,900 gigawatt Hours (GWH) until the next rains in November/December 2015. But, it has now been established that there is enough water for only 10,800 GWH-the difference translates into a 560-MW deficit.
The government on July 13 authorized the importation of 100 megawatts (MW) of power and the construction of a thermal power station, only the country’s second. It also said the power utility would have to spend $60 million on power imports mainly from its well- endowed northern neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
ZESCO has been directed to ensure that a 120-MW hydropower station under construction is commissioned in August 2015 as scheduled. It has also directed Zambia’s first coal-powered station with an initial installed capacity of 150 MW be commissioned in November 2015. The station is under construction in the Zambezi valley by Nava Bharat of Singapore. The company must expedite work on two more medium hydro-power station and the expansion of a heavy fuel oil plant.
In addition, plans are advanced for the construction of a third hydropower station on the Kafue river, one the largest tributaries of the Zambezi. Estimates are that the 750-MW Kafue Gorge Lower Power station will cost around $2 billion and is being undertaken in partnership with Sinohydro of China.
Further, Zambia on July 8 signed an inter-governmental Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the DRC for the joint development of hydropower stations on the Luapula River which in some parts forms the boundary between the two countries. Feasibility studies are also advanced for the joint development with Zimbabwe of a new hydro-power station at Batoka Gorge just below Victoria Falls.
The current power shortage will hit both industrial and crucially, mining output. Zambia is Africa’s second largest copper producer and the metal is the main export and foreign exchange earner. The government has already admitted that the output will plummet as a result of the 30% reduction in power supply to the mines. Overall, the state power utility, ZESCO Ltd is expected to suffer a total revenue loss of $167 million as a result of the countrywide load shedding.
Article courtesy of Arthur Simuchoba