Africa-Press – Zambia. Zambia requires over 14 billion United States dollar worth of investment in its energy sector to meet the growing demand of electricity services. The 14 billion US dollars is being spent on investment into the energy sector between 2020 and 2040.
The demand has been projected to increase by 95 percent and will be mainly driven by domestic and bulk supply. Energy Regulation Board (ERB) Director for Economic Regulation, Alfred Mwila, said this during the dissemination of the findings of the electricity Cost Service Study (CoSS) and government green paper in Lusaka today.
Mr. Mwila noted that peak electricity demand for the country will increase from 2,143 megawatts in 2020 to 4,169 megawatts in 2040. He explained that the study was aimed at determining the country’s power system, cost of electricity from generation, transmission and distribution in order to come up with an appropriate tariff that will in turn improve the utilities service delivery to customers.
He stated that the study will also help the utility companies to be more financially sustainable and ensure security or supply through various investments.
Mr. Mwila explained that for customers, the study will lead to improved service delivery and less unplanned power cuts. He added that the last CoSS was done in 2006 and it only focused more on ZESCO as it was the major player in the electricity industry at that time.
He noted that the current study has taken into consideration the different changes that have taken place in the market and has allowed other players operating in the Zambian power sector.
He said the current CoSS, which started in 2019 and was completed last year, was carried by energy market and regulation consultants with support from the African Development Bank.
And the Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary for Administration, Francesca Zyambo, has called for active participation from stakeholders on how they want the study to be improved upon.
In a speech ready for her by the Ministry of Energy Director for Planning and Information, Mwape Chibala, Ms Zyambo explained that the green paper is not the government’s final position hence the need to engage other stakeholders.
She has since encouraged stakeholders to make submissions and comments on the CoSS so that the government can come up with an inclusive study that will help in coming up with a final decision on how the country’s electricity sub-sector will be managed for the benefit of everyone.
She further said the Ministry of Energy and ERB will conduct the consultative meetings in all the provincial centres of the country to allow for divergent views before coming up with a white paper.
The white paper will contain the government’s final position and policy direction on the findings and recommendation of the electricity cost of service study.
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