ZESCO Limited has refuted claims from some sections of society that the current load shedding is due to the installation of sub-standard equipment procured from China.
ZESCO senior manager transmission South Julius Kapambwe maintained that the current load shedding the country was experiencing was due to low water levels in the country’s water bodies which were used in power generation.
In his presentation during a sensitisation meeting held at Livingstone’s Fairmount Hotel on Tuesday, Mr Kapambwe said ZESCO always followed international standards when making procurements and that accusing the company of buying sub-standard equipment by some sections of society was ill- motivated.
“The equipment in question has been running normally from about 2007 when it was installed and we never experienced these problems.
“So people must understand that the problem we have is that we have low water levels due to poor rainfall in the just ended season and there is nothing other than that,” Mr Kapambwe said.
He said the ZESCO was committed in ensuring that people were served in the best way possible hence the mitigation measures such as load shedding that have been taken.
Mr Kapambwe said the current load shedding was expected to last for over six months from now depending on how the rains might fall this season.
On accusations that the power utility company was exporting power to other countries at the expense of the local people, Mr Kapambwe agreed that Zambia had already signed binding legal contracts with Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but the country had since reduced on the amount of power been exported to these two countries.
He further described as false reports from some other sections of the media that ZESCO was exporting power to Mozambique.
Mr Kapambwe said Zambia was in talks with Mozambique to see as to whether it would be possible for the country to start exporting power to the neighboring country once supply was normalized.
He said one of the mitigating measures that ZESCO had put in place to supplement the current output was that the company was currently importing about 200 Megawatts (MW) of power at a great cost.
And some Livingstone residents appealed to ZESCO to follow their load shedding schedule to avoid inconveniencing those in production.
Morris Mutale said it was unfair that sometimes power was going off without following what was stipulated on the schedule.
Mr Mutale said such uncoordinated power cuts adversely affected people in agriculture production, lodges and other industries that heavily depended on electricity.
In response, Mr Kapambwe said the company was trying by all means to religiously follow the load shedding schedule unless there was a fault.
“As ZESCO are trying to follow the load shedding schedule religiously, but that does not replace the fact that we are going to have faults. When there is a fault we have to work on it,” Mr Kapambwe.
Nonsense from the Patriotic Full Carder. what Zambians want is the end of the useless load shedding and not your nonsense defense.
resign if you have failed to provide leadership.
what a Kachasu stricken government.
Someone still has to take responsibility for the electricity mess in Zambia and this has not yet happened nor has Anyone been disciplined at all
This is a sign that in Zambia we tolerate sub standard service and because of this we will forever be a mediocre state until we wake up and demand persons in high office to be accountable for their performance.
HH our president, pump some sanity into this government
LUNGU AND HIS PROVEN FAILURES MUST BE RETIRED IN NATIONAL INTEREST. NO EXCUSES WILL HELP HIM. HE IS IN CHARGE AND HE SHOULD BE FINDING SOLUTIONS INST
Hildah Malama,
You are not even in Zambia to demand that. You talk about the power that you do not use. Are you saying it affects your stay wherever you are? It is this negativity that will make you a run-away citizen. Unless you mean to insult ZESCO senior manager transmission South Julius Kapambwe by calling him a carder, otherwise being a carder does not stop him to work as an expert professional. Just enjoy your new where-about and keep your emotions cool young lady.
You should know though that PF is ruling now and in greater future. Meanwhile, try & advise hh to stand as MP for Choma so as to gain some political experience before he aspires for Presidency. He ha greater influence on you young carder. Thanx
ZESCO management find a better excuse as the water levels are not that bad.
its seems some people don’t draw a line between politics and business hence we have such misplaced thoughts .Not every one is a cadre and i believe Zesco man is more civilised than this noisy blogger
Iwe chi Hilda and Chils you UPeND morons, go and wee wee in the Kariba Dam so that it gets full kanshi!
I feel good to to see these low minded Zambians who fell to decide what can help them out. OK, let someone answer this question then i will stop wandering. IS THERE LOAD SHEDDING IN ZIMBABWE? Because Zambia and Zimbabwe are using the same water.
I for understand what zesco is goin through. But the load shediing has miss placed priorities. I say so because for example, chipata general hospital losses a patients on oxygen every time there is power outage. The hospital has an ancient genset. Ba office of the president and ba intelligence come and check and help us poor for once. M sure evenn other hospitals are going through this. Even you zesco employees you have relative we treat and they die because of your miss placed priorities.
Waste of words.
You know Jameson Lungu does not care how many people die because of your ancient genset!
He goes to South Africa for medical treatment at Taxpayers expense, so if there is no Zesco in Chipata he does not even want to know about it.
I believe the Zambezi river below the dam wall is the highest it has ever been why – becos the newly installed turbines are using a lot more wate to generate electricity than the old ones thereby depleting the water in lake kaliba must faster.
If I were zesco I would just shut up. Low water level can’t be the broken record we want to hear. Solutions please. Importation of power is one of them and Zesco, should put in their proposal that government should cut down the bloated cabinet-nyanga ya galu
Still they fail to show us pictures of the low waters, what can be so hard in doing that? Unless of course you are lying.
And when you see the pictures? How will that help to improve the water levels and do you understand the level markings? Just shut up pin head!
Unless you are perpetually drunk that you don’t even know how you backyard or worse still how your children look like, these pictures of showing LOW WATER LEVELS have been hitting the free ZNBC station.
If you cant believe this position by ZESCO, take a journey to Kariba and see for yourself. I pity these cheap minds because they shall always be left behind. When a natural challenge like this on befalls a nation, REAL people, regardless of their beliefs come together to try and resolve the matter.
Just take a drive to your cousins in Southern Province, there is looming hunger due poor rainfall, can you blame the innocent people there?
Lets be all patriotic and reasonable sometimes no matter how bad you detest things you least have control over.
@5.1 Id!ot!
as your name suggests your whole family must be Id!ots, you are same corrupt thieving supporters of this lying PF GRZ. what is wrong with seeking the truth ?? why are you allergic to seeking the truth ?
@5.2 Secret Code, you are gullible or also a corrupt PF kaponya, we have had worse droughts than this before like the Id!ot! above, ask your self why coborra bassa dam in Moza down stream is not empty and there is no drought from where the river flows from, maybe the drought was only over Kariba dam ??
Anyone ever heard of wind power or nuclear power at Zesco?
There goes another hollow head. Which nuclear power are you talking about if you cant even maintain your wife. Please stop showing your ignorance here and just pray that God gives us more rains this season.
If you cant pay for electricity produced by cheap hydro, how will you the f00l pay for expensive electricity from Nuclear Power plants?
The problem with most armchair Zambians is that they are the loudest talkers when they know nothing.
Zambia shall overcome this temporal challenge and we, the thinkers will ensure we work hard for the next generations and at least we will die happily that we contributed something to our great country. HH doesn’t know anything about energy policies and he should just let the technocrats plan and map out the way ahead. Viva ECL!!!!
Mr. Kampambwe bulichikopo. The cause of load shed is not low water, but failure to invest and failure to install generators effectively and efficiently. Zesco & the government have known the pattern of the weather system for a long time. It is very foolish of you guys showing us low water levels because that was expected in accordance with forecast. Did you expect to have more water than what is there? The current low water level is correct. ZESCO never took any measure to avoid load shed. The intent of Kafue lower was to avoid load shed and increase capacity by installing many generators. I will soon write the truth about the load shed. I worked for Zesco from 1992 to 2000 in G & T And I know what I am talking about. It is better to shut your mouth before I expose your failures
Bla,bla,bla as people die,the country being ruined.This is annoying.
Zesco will do well to fully investigate the report of inefficient generators, if they are to find solutions, not outrightly dismiss such concerns which may be true.
The chap is laying. The chinese machines are sub standard. We had severe drought from 1992 to 1995 but we never experienced any load shedding. So what is this cadre telling us
What is he LAYING, eggs..!?
Oh no!! This is 2015 man and over 20 years have passed. What the load demand in Zambia then, NIL. Now the country is almost a middle income nation and almost every household, industry, agriculture depend on electricity. When ZESCO request for a tariff increment to attract foreign and local investments, you RESIST heavily, so what then do you want?
You cant bake a cake and it yourself. Be real, the tariffs in Zambia are extremely low and the investors will take money elsewhere were the can it makes business sense. For now, appreciate what cheap is very expensive. You always want cheap electricity, now try Diesel generators and see whether the reality of listening to sense.
This problem cannot be blamed on ZESCO or Government but the fake economists like HH who resist good tariffs
For sure substandard.
Just like the mobile phone towers where the Zambian taxpayer was charged for equipment that was supposed to go for 20 Km and we were supplied with 2 Km stuff.
And the difference went into more money in the PF pocket!
These *****s keep on changing their stories everyday…Like they are drunk 24/7….goons can’t even come up with a proper schedule that they can follow…they always switch off anyhow…..Jus need some panel beatings these chaps….seems they have forgotten dat their r humans…behaving like dogs!!!!!@
If dat man on top of zesco whatever his name is has got any self esteem he shudnt resign n better still hang himself…wat a character!!!!!
If this was in the UK, he would resign in disgrace.
If it was Japan he would not be able to face his family and commit suicide by jumping out of his office window.
In Zambia he will get a salary increase.
Low water level.are the rivers dry?please explain to the people professinally.This loadshedding has been there whether high water level or low.the problem is the staff at zesco is inexperienced to plan properly.i have names in mind who worked at zesco and we never hard these problems.
Can the goverment be serious with some of these issues,do not let the President down.
Why do we trust the chinese so much and yet it is a well known fact that these people are corrupt. A lot of them have been involved in criminal activities in Zambia and yet we continue receiving thousands of them everyday. Why can’t we deal with nations like Germany, USA, UK, Japan. PF because you do not listen to Zambians you will lose next year’s elections, after all we are the ones voting not your corrupt chinese.
Solar Power is the answer for Zambia. Zesco will cry when household go for Solar. ( loss of revenue)
Solar power yes, but what capacity and for what usage? Can solar panels sustain the loads demanded by heavy machinery on the mines?
Milupi and other “clever economists” like HH who are shareholders in CEC resist cost reflective tariffs by ZESCO that’s why they are quiet now.
This LOW WATER LEVELS at Kariba is very real and what ZESCO is doing in the circumstance is the best to avert total shutdown of the machines. If anything, we all are supposed to encourage, support them and suggest long term strategies instead of denying that the “blood” that drive our turbines is not just there.
Our friends in the West come together and put politics away when confronted with life threatening challenges and all work together for the good of their country. This cannot be political but…
Liars, that is part of the problem. Just tell the nation the truth, you are exporting power to raise funds to pay off debts. Our MPs are dull. All they need is to ask how much has been realized from power exports and how that money has been used
I belive the problem is the distribution network with unbalanced demands putting strains on substations and generators being at risk of blowing up. This is the result of random building without planning. Engineers would understand this.
This is not the first time ZESCO has had problems. Difference now is that every little thing is politics. There is a story of our beloved Gray Zulu (UNIP SG) having luncheon in China when the lights went out asked: SO EVEN HERE IN CHINA YOU HAVE ZESCO PROBLEMS?
“the fact that we are going to have faults. When there is a fault we have to work on it,” Mr Kapambwe”
The fault here is very clear. Incompetent management and lack of planning by PF.
There is no way you can justify exporting power because of an agreement. We are aware that agreements have termination clauses and you can use this to exit from the agreement in order to give Zambians the power they deserves. The Zesco MD and entire senior management needs to be fired for not foreseeing this huge mess they have created for our poor working Zambians and our poor economy. These days their is internet and you can predict the weather patterns even for upto 3 months. Hence, you chaps are not doing your job.
Loadshedding is caused by poor planning by Zesco .They employ engineers who are qualified on paper but don’t know anything to do with electricity.You frogs! Look at Luapula province we have plenty water there but you have not thought of investing in Hydro electricity.You hyenas!Mbiliwizya imwe!You are only interested in getting huge salaries at the poor Zambia
Correction its good Engineer Julius kampamba and Young intelligent Engineer Director Now ama Webster Good Engineers Ya Peer
Lets hope the Low water levels is not as a result of the reported cracks at the dam.
ZESCO is not sincere or is visionless. Expected water levels were known by ZESCO in February/March/April since the rainy season effectively ends in March with a few rains in April. If indeed it is water level which is a problem, why did the load shedding not begin in March or April when it was known that the water levels would be low this year? To begin load shedding in July suggests another problem.
What ZESCO needs is to think smarter and re-engineer the current way of generating hydro-power: For example they could recycle the water or have multiple downstream generation instead of letting 95% of the water flow to the sea unused.
So called poor rainfall pattern will not change in the long term – in fact we must be prepared for worst scenarios i.e one month of rainfall.
C’mon zesco please innovate & think outside the box.
Hum…..Propaganda has done harm to most of our young people. They would rather die for inaccurate information than that which Julius Kapambwe is telling them.
Very good engineer that Julius Kapambwe is. Insulting him will not change your load shedding, so shut up pin heads!
If you cannot understand simple explanations that water levels are low, how would you understand or interpret complex things like water level markings even if they showed you the pictures, you dunderheads?