President Levy Mwanawasa has asked Zambians to reduce electricity consumption during peak hours of the day saying taking such measures would reduce load shedding.
And President Mwanawasa has directed the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Ng’andu Magande to urgently suspend duty on a selected number of energy saving devices and appliances in order to save on electricity.
Dr. Mwanawasa said load shedding has become unavoidable to the country because a number of generators at the country’s major hydro electricity supply stations were currently undergoing rehabilitation and upgrading.
Kafue gorge and Kariba north bank stations are the major hydro electricity suppliers in the country.
He said delaying the rehabilitation of the generators would have caused a more serious risk to the country’s supply of electricity.
Dr. Mwanawasa was speaking this evening when he addressed the nation on the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation television and radio, on measures to minimise load shedding of electricity.
“The possibility of importing electricity has become narrower because all our neighbours where we have imported from in the past are also facing shortages,” he said.
The President said the boom in Zambia’s industrial growth has increased the demand for electricity hence the shortage of power.
He pointed out that the demand for electricity would continue to rise hence threaten the supply even further.
“I am afraid that the overall supply-demand balance will remain tight because new sources of demand for energy have emerged and will continue to emerge,” he said.
He cited the new connections of electricity that would be made to Lumwana mine, Kafue steel plant, the expanded Chilanga cement, and Munali Nickel mine as some of the major projects that would take up a lot of electricity.
Dr. Mwanawasa however pointed out that Zambians could collectively take actions in individual homes to minimise and even eliminate load shedding.
“”We can collectively in our individual homes take actions that will reduce the need for load shedding. Firstly we should all strive to use less electricity at all times. Secondly and more particularly, we should all be vigilant to see to it that we reduce the use of electricity during peak times,” he said.
He appealed to the public to switch off swimming pool pumps, geysers, deep freezers, borehole pumps and other appliances during peak hours to minimise electricity consumption.
He further urged the electricity consumers to use energy efficient appliances such as energy saver lamps and consider using solar system for supply of electricity.
“For customers, I have been informed that this can reduce their monthly bills by close to 90 per cent for a typical household,” he said.
Dr. Mwanawasa told the nation that when duty is suspended on selected energy saving devices and appliances, retail outlets should also reduce prices for these items.
He said VAT on these items would either be zero rated or exempt.
“I now appeal to each and every resident of this country to make concerted efforts to apply these simple energy saving measures so that we rid ourselves of the nuisance of load shedding,” he said.
The President has since called for unity among electricity consumers in order to overcome the challenges of load shedding.
The problem of load shedding is expected to end in March 2009 when generators that are undergoing rehabilitation and upgrading would be fully operational.
Load shed state hse as well…insansa kuchijanya…
Chuchu Chuchu Chuchu!! Are you doing what you saying and I quote “We can collectively in our individual homes take actions that will reduce the need for load shedding” end of quote. Can you collectively take action to reduce load shedding by switching of electric at plot 1 for at least twe hours a day so that you “collectively reduce loading shedding”. We should all strive to use less electricity at all times including you as leader, lead by example! Be viligant too dont just yap for the seek of yapping!
This is a global problem, with all the demand surging the supply will be affected.SA is also having the same problem at the moment.And energy saving is the way to go.We just need more investment to up the supply as future development project will still continue to demand more power.
Yangu ba LPM, y shld we reduce consumption when our consumption is already below. Just pump in more cash into electricity generation. Further liberaze the generation of power. It is a scandal for Zed to b going thru this load shedding nosense just because we are not proactive. Amalasha nomba will be in use and we know the environmental consequences, beniko serious ba LPM. NO power – no industrial dev’t, no agric prodn, – no wealth creation = high poverty. Crime will equally be higher than normal, ukwafita awe bane. Cabashani pa Zed. Its time we all bcame allergic to inefficiency and most esp. to poverty!!!!
#4 very right without electricity high poverty. Reduce taxes on machinery etc required for generation of electricity to encourage and boost investment in generation of electricity. Leave tax on finished product. The fact that South Africa has similar problems should not be a consolation. They use Coal to generate. We use water and we have plenty of it … some of it killing people. As long as there is no investment this problem will be stuck with us.
#3 what global problem? In 1995 Eskom estimated an increase in the demand for power mainly because of the industrial activity within Gauteng Province. The SA government had three choices: (i) Invest in alternative power sources (ii) increase capacity in neibouring nations and import from their (iii) Do nothing. They opted for option 3. For years the GRZ knows the demand for power within Zambia, and they have opted for ‘do nothing’ and talk the rot. A verse in Proverbs say ” where there is no planning, people perish”. Such is the case with Zambia. Imagine where there is no “implementation of plans”! The result is even worse. Global!! Certainly not.
I think it is time that we stop monopolizing some companies and let the free market work. If Zesco had to put all its shares on LUSE and other power firms where allowed to come in, they would be no power problems in the sense that since there is competition in the market, the company will do its best to provide efficient electricity at the lowest price because it’ll be scared of losing customers and losing investors on the LUSE. We saw how the market works in the telephone business where Celtel thinking it was a monopoly felt the threat of MTN and introduced WAP services in order to keep its current customers happy and loyal to the company. Even in Television, when MUVI TV started airing,
Your MPs would rather give themselves car loans than invest in infrustructure. On sunday, you even go to church praying for God to sort your problems. Hahah, Zambia, the real Africa. Because most Zambian’s have never tasted efficiency, reliability and value for money for every service they pay for, its to be expected that one can accept cheapish reasons as those given by Chuchu and Ministers such as global blabla. Ba SA am sure will say racism because the “black government” is being accused of failing to act before the power crisis. Shame on Southern Africa, with lands blessed by God’s good hands, yet we know no value to what we sit on.
cont…
it was clear that ZNBC might not only lose advertisers but also viewers and ZNBC changed and upgraded its style of programming but even after the upgrading, ZNBC still lost most of its viewers to MUVI TV but ZNBC still keeps its monopolistic nature because it knows that MUVI TV is only available in LSK. A monopoly basically does not care because no matter what people do, there is no substitute so people are stuck with the company. Put all of Zesco’s stock on the LUSE and allow other power firms to come in so they can be competition in the Energy sector. BTW, this will also provide jobs for people in the economy.
How much power does Levy use to watch Dead End BC (ZNBC)? Practise what you preach bashi mwana.
Sisala z being over protected.So it hs come to the President to solicit 4 sympathy.
It’s a shame that the country is undergoing such problems at a time when the economy is growing. I only hope that Zesco can make the necessary investment and place measures to ensure that this situation is not repeated. Their is also need for Zesco to ensure that they return sufficent funds each year for reinvestments.
Reduce consumption and continue paying a fixed charge of K200,000 per month? Not workable. Sisala must increase Power generation. We have a lot of water in Zed. He (Sisala) should also tell his men to install pre-paid meters in all houses. Not ifi a le twibila.
#3 has got all wrong! Why should we compare ourselves with a country which seriously has low power supply due to the high level of econonic activities and the construction of utra modern football stadia that will host the World Cup. Anglo coal in south africa has completely run out of coal and thus the cause of the outages there. Zambia on the other hand hasent been servicing its generators and hence the electricity problems the country is experiencing now. After South africa disconnected the grid from Zimbabwe, it affected Zambia aswell since the countries in the southern region highly depend on each other power supply.
Crazy-Zambian#7
Spot on! Zesco need a kick up their backside. My older brother works for zesco as an engineer and blames amabosses. Too corrupt imbwa zija!
s ame company somework some are called temprals some are parmanent no motivation ifyou ameter reader you tempral you get eigty hundred aparmanent gets two million seven hundred were is fairnes we are demotivated
what can we do to reduce consumption of electricity