Zambia, Africa’s No.2 copper producer, plans to cut power supplies to mines by up to 30 percent as early as next week, after water levels at its hydro-electric projects dropped due to drought, industry sources said on Tuesday.
Zambia has the capacity to generate about 2,200 megawatts of power, of which copper producers consume about two-thirds. Zesco asked mining companies to cut usage because of the shortage, and began daily rolling cuts to households and businesses that last eight hours.
The plan, still under discussion with the industry, will see state-run power company Zesco Ltd limit the amount of power it supplies to its customers, including mining companies, due to a power deficit of 560 MW.
“Zesco said during the meeting that by October this year Zambia would face a very serious power crisis if it spared the mines,” said one source, who did not want to be named.
“Mining companies said cutting their power supply would mean closing down some units and laying off some workers.”
Jackson Sikamo, president of the Chamber of Mines of Zambia, said he did not attend last week’s meeting and had not been briefed about its deliberations.
Another source said the meeting, which included officials from Zambia’s energy regulator, asked mining companies to devise their own power reduction plan.
“Mining companies were asked to come up with what they think is practical and they will present the proposal this week,” the second source said. Individual mining companies were not immediately available for comment.
Foreign mining companies in Zambia include Glencore , Barrick Gold Corp, Vedanta Resources and First Quantum Minerals.
Zambia has also halted power exports as a result of the shortage.Zambia’s electricity exports increased by 17 percent in 2014 to 1.3 million kilowatt-hours, according to the Ministry of Finance’s 2014 economic report.
A line connecting the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo enables it to export as many as 250 megawatts to Africa’s biggest copper producer, according to Copperbelt Energy’s 2014 annual report.
Any impact on Zambia’s copper output may cause economic growth to slow further after the government already cut its forecast to 5.8 percent this year from more than 7 percent. Mines Minister Christopher Yaluma said June 6 that copper output in 2015 won’t beat last year’s total of 708,258 metric tons, after low prices and a dispute over a new tax system caused production to slow. The country’s corn crop also shrank this year as a result of lower rainfall.
The cuts to mining companies will range from 40 megawatts from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., increasing to 240 megawatts from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., the Zesco letter dated June 23 shows.
Source:Reuters/Bloomberg Business
ZESCO is doing what government would not be brave enough to do -closing the mines slowly….Can’t believe the mines consume 2/3 of the electricity ZESCO produces! Let them close ,our children shall come and reopen once we sort out our energy problem and our agriculture.
Ubu ndiye uchimbwi at its best from PF
Aba bachimbwi ba PF bapaya chalo chatu mange.
But why did we invest huge amount of money in a old generating station with questionable sourse of water when we know the effects of climate change but pay little attention to the new plant at maamba we are busy getting loans for funny projects we we can’t come up with a new station like ethopia we have the water and the market for power why can’t grz bring in investor’s in the power sector better than building roads becouse this plants generates money anyway voters the villagers want roads to come to mandahill
My dear, desist from writing on blogs if you are not conversant with punctuation marks. this is sickening mweh.
When the Kariba Dam wall was completed in 1960, Zimbabwe started with 6 generators producing 666 megawatts. Zambia started with 4 in 1976 producing 600 megawatts. Since 2013, and due to increased demand for power, both countries have punctured the dam wall adding extra generators. Zimbabwe added 2, for an extra 300 megawatts and Zambia added 2 to increase the output by 360 megawatts. Meaning, the dam has more holes letting the water out of the lake than in the beginning. The lake is a reservoir just like your wife’s mealie meal tin. When she has less mouths to feed the mealie meal last longer but when people increase the tin empts faster. Besides exporting power to neighbours this can also be a contributing factor.
Bit of a ka Catch 22 apa…..
Where were the THINK TANKS OF THE ECONOMY “planners” (5,10,20 years ago) in first place?
Problem is that they are bizzy fighting each other for votes so they steal more while in office, instead of making strategic plans for tghe well-being of the people.
Plus with the copper prices at an all time low and a president who is allergic to dealing with ANY major economic problem unless gossip and he-said-she-said issues, we are doomed.
Mr president if you have vision you would have fired mr chikwanda the man is bad for the economy and he doesn’t even explain what he is trying to do this man doesn’t even add political value to you party the man looks like he can’t even win in his village maybe you have no data people tell you he has support in northern province i dont think so people might not even know him their like mutate Nalumango people don’t know them people knew sata and mwamba maybe not those keeping chikwanda in your cabinet is like keeping. …..
In your cabinet they make your children sick
And POP! goes Zambia’s only moneymaking industry. Without the mines the Kwacha will hit the lows. Imports will be damn expensive. Life will be like in the 1980s if not worse. All because we have poor leadership. Leadership that cant see the connection between energy resources and National economic growth. Leadership that believes in wako ni wako Leadership that believes Rupiah Banda shouldn’t be prosecuted. Leadership that thinks hoping on planes is the stuff that Presidents are made of. Leadership that thinks Mugabe the tyrant is the beacon for a lost nation. Leadership that believes there should be no freedom of expression for people like Pilato. Leadership that believes in Whisky
Sometimes when rubbish statements are repeated many times such as above, you would be persuaded they make sense. However the rubbish written against ECL remains rubbish however many times they are repeated, due to the underlying hate, malice, errant lack of coherence, blatant jealousy and sheer desperation they exhibit
please explain to me why Zimbabwe who shares the same water resource as us i.e Zambezi river have no load shedding !!!!!! there is no load shedding in victoria falls. There is no load shedding in Kariba town so why when we have to have load shedding they are still pumping/using all the water to generate electricity !!!!!!!! Please explain ZESCO as we do not believe you !!! You are probably exporting all our zesco
Zimbabwe has load shedding. Its exacerbated by the fact that they cant even import electricity from Mozambique because they cant pay upfront. In fact all Southern African countries are loadshedding at present.
I have been in zimbabwe for 1 week ( victoria falls) and there was absolutely no load shedding whatsoever !!!!!
NEXT YEARS ELECTIONS WILL BE THE EASIEST FOR HH TO WIN BECAUSE OF THE FOLLOWING.
1 THE KWACHA AT K8/USD AS AT TODAY.
2 POWER BLACKOUTS
3 FAILURE TO UNITE ZAMBIAN BY ALLOWING SENSLESS CHAMA TO ISSUE DIVISIVE STATEMENTS AGAINST TONGAS
4 BLOATED CABINET
5 STALLED PROJECTS STARTED BY LATE SATA.
6 FAILURE TO TAKE CARE OF FARMERS INTERESTS
7FAILURE TO TAKE CARE OF STUDENTS INTERESTS IE CLOSURES ETC
8ENDLESS TRIPS BOTH FOREIGN AND LOCAL.
9FAILURE TO TAKE CARE WORKERS INTERESTS IE WAGE FREEZ ETC
10 FAILURE TO TAKE CHARGE OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS.
THE LIST IS ENDLESS.
thank goodness those private Indians investors had a plan to build a 300mw plant in maamba otherwise they would be no light at the end of the tunnel unfortunately that will only be fully operational for december……but i cant truly believe we lost so much from this so called drought something smells fishy here