Africa-Press – Zambia. AN Energy Expert, Johnston Chikwanda says Zambia continues to face an energy crisis because of the non cost reflective tariff in the energy sector. And Mr. Chikwanda says successive Governments have ignored expert evidence on the challenges in the energy sector hence the continued deficit of energy in the country.
Contributing to the ongoing debate on load-shedding, Dr. Chikwanda said the solution for the current energy crisis lies in addressing the tariff equation. He says as opposed to focusing on solar energy, the energy crisis could be addressed by cleaner thermal energy using coal.
Zambia has traditionally been reliant on hydroelectric power, but the Kariba dam has not been adequately maintained for decades, and variable rainfall in recent years often reduces the hydroelectric generation capacity.
And it would be prudent for you to know that Zambia is potentially self-sufficient in sources of electricity, coal, biomass and renewable energy. The only energy source where the country is not self-sufficient is petroleum energy.
And Dr. Chikwanda who have sat on several Task Forces in Zambia on Energy including the 2017 ZESCO reforms reiterated that one of the issue that the GOVERNMENT of the Republic of Zambia did not act upon was to attain cost reflective tariff which he affirmed that it is at the nexus of the challenge in the country.
Dr. Chikwanda says experts further recommended that the single buyer model must be changed to multiple buyer model so that ZESCO Limited can be spared from being the only off taker of expensive Independent Power Producer -IPP- and that was ignored as well.
He revealed that experts suggested that it must be made easy for other players in the industry to access transmission lines saying when they are competing for a big client with ZESCO/Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc (CEC.zm) and if they want to use their transmission network challenge can arise.
Dr. Chikwanda says he has been part and parcel of formulating sector laws such as the electricity Act of 2019 and Energy Regulation Act of 2019 and input in the Rural Electrification Authority -REA- Bill.
The energy Expert says he has contributed alot of recommendations many of them quietly and others as part of teams and regrettably reports gather dust somewhere. And the Energy Expert has warned that as long as this is not resolved, there is no Task Force that can solve challenges at hand in a significant way.
Dr. Chikwanda who could not hide the frustrations regarding energy crisis in Zambia stressed the need for those in leadership to face the public with reality if they don’t want to go through this ever again.
“A few years ago, ZDA recorded billions of dollars of investment pledges in the energy sector which could not be actualized because of the Tarriff. I hear there are again billions of investment pledges at ZDA for the energy sector. Until the tariff is ok these investments may not be actualized unless its to sell to Zesco who will in turn sell at a loss.”
“IPP power is very expensive because it is sold at actual price. IPPs have almost broken Zescos backbone with expensive power which is later sold at a loss.”
“To hit the nail on the head until we solve the tariff challenge at hand, we will be at this mountain for a while.”
“Like what Lucky said on this platform we have to pin our hopes not just on Hydro but on more thermal (coal). The western world just has to bear with us on coal. There is now cleaner coal technology. This solar thing to drive industrial development we still have some long time.” Dr. Chikwanda said.
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