Africa-Press – Zambia. We should be very clear. The current load-shedding is just an economic decision and management issue and has nothing to do with the current weather pattern or drought.
Water levels in Kariba Lake are known and anticipated in advance hence the Zambia River Authority (ZRA) determining and allocating the amount of water usage to each power station per year to ZESCO and Zimbabwe Power Company.
The maintainance schedule for Independent Power Producers like Maamba Collieries Power Station is submitted in advance and period of maintainance is well-known to ZESCO for planning purposes. This load-shedding has nothing to do with drought or weather factors. Zambia last experienced drought in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
2021 and 2022 have not been affected by any drought. We had bumper crops across the country during the same period and seasonal rainfall was above normal. The weather focus for 2023 remains that Zambia will not experience drought.
The annual rainfall in Zambia averages between 700 mm in the south and 1,400 mm in the north. Check the graph attached which shows that Zambia has received above normal rainfall in 2021 and 2022.
On 23rd December, 2022 Energy Regulation Board announced approval of fresh power exports to Namibia (180 megawatts), Zimbabwe (100 megawatts) and Bostwana (70 megawatts).
This followed signed agreements between ZESCO and regional power utilities made in April 2022 to export the excess power of 1,100 megawatts. This is in addition to traditional power exports made to Malawi, Tanzania, DRC and the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP).
We must be very clear again that Kariba Dam is no longer a big factor as the country is producing sufficient power from other power stations. Zambia’s peak demand is 2,300 megawatts. Installed capacity is 3,456 megawatts. Power Exports is over 440 to 1,100 megawatts.
The current water levels in Kariba was induced by management’s decision to uprate the machines at Kariba North Bank and Kariba North Extension, despite the allocated water levels to meet urgent power exports…a poor planning activity.
And the newly constituted taskforce to look at energy inneficiency is such a disappointment. You mean they spent the whole weekend planning and visiting power stations only to come up with a puzzle wether 6+6 is equal to 12 or 6!
We must state that the current load-shedding is a result of poor management, poor planning and insatiable appetite to raise money even at the expense of the welfare of citizens. Stop load-shedding.
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