ZESCO has failed to minimise load shedding following the company’s inability to commission the fourth generator for commercial operations after it caught fire. The generator which was supposed to have been commissioned on July 15 caught fire during trials on Sunday last week.
The commissioning of the generator for commercial operations will now have to be delayed by three months, to enable the contractor to procure new material from France. Alston Power, the company engaged to upgrade the four generators at Kariba North Bank Power Station said the fault developed during electrical testing.
The power company’s construction manager Sylvain Bouye said they were currently assessing the extent of the damage and how much it will cost to repair the guttered part. Mr Bouye, however, confirmed that only the insulation material got damaged.
“The commissioning will now be delayed by three months as it will take two months to procure the material and one month to carry out repairs,” he said. Mr Bouye said he is optimistic that the generator will be commissioned by October.
“Once commissioned, the KNBPS will have a generation capacity of 720 megawatts,” he said.
Zesco is currently upgrading its four generators at the station to generate 180 megawatts each from 150 megawatts to mitigate the current power outage in the country.
And Zesco director for generation and development Victor Mundende said it is unfortunate that the generator developed the fault as this has undermined the company’s efforts to address the power deficit the country is experiencing.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
why did it catch fire? Is it because of substandard works, poor commissioning, negligence on the part of the contractor or its just a story to buy yourselves time?
IDIOTS!!!
How can the whole entire generator catch fire isn’t it why its called trial testing you impose fire and safety regulation and have a fire team on standby; where are the smart Engineers who used to work at ZESCO, is it now filled with fake paper certificate UNZA graduates.
Zesco’s wage bill is jst 2 big S those in top mgmt, chitundu shud reduce his team of snr managers n chief accountants they do nothin nd end up getting free big salaries. reduce unnessary costs, nd employ casuals n temploz on permanet coz they re da ones doin the actual jobs in all areas..
No proper testing/commissioning procedures and quality control. what a country.
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