Energy Minister Dora Siliya has revealed that over US$40 million was spent to import 148 MW of emergency power between September and December 2015.
The power was imported from Aggreko Mozambique, a subsidiary of Aggreko Plc, the world’s largest temporary power generation company, headquartered in Glasgow.
Ms. Siliya told Parliament in a ministerial statement that out of that amount, Government transferred US$32.5 million to ZESCO to help finance the power importation arrangements.
She said ZESCO paid the remainder of US$7.5 million to Aggreko.
Ms. Siliya also revealed that Zambia is still facing a power deficit of 1,000 MW largely due to low water levels recorded at most of the country’s hydro stations.
She also disclosed that a ship from Kapowership from Turkey has arrived at the port of Nacala in Mozambique which will provide with the first 100 MW and later increase the imports to 200 MW.
Ms. Siliya said the power from Turkey will replace the power from Aggreko who were supplying 148 MW from September to December 2015.
She stated that ZESCO is currently importing power at a higher rate than the price the utility was selling to its customers.
Ms. Siliya said ZESCO is importing power at 18.34 cents per Kilowatt and selling at 5 cents per kilo to its customers.
The Energy Minister also stated that the load management schedule issued by ZESCO is now been followed effectively.
Ms. Siliya further revealed that during the festive season, the country enjoyed stable supply of electricity mainly due to increased load availability because of the industrial break.
She also revealed that a further 150MW from Mozambique’ Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) at 14 cents Kilowatts per hour bringing the total of $10 million dollars a month.
And Ms Siliya has revealed that there has been a slight rise in the water levels at Kariba dam.
She however said the water levels have not still significantly risen to give hope that the situation at the dam will improve soon.
The Energy Minister also revealed that Zambia’s power exports to Namibia have fallen to only 33 MW during off-peak.
The question is, are we going to recover the $40m from commercial beneficiaries or was that gigantic investment a charitable gesture to businesses?
The statement is incomplete madam Siliya.
Rather unimpressive. Don’t you sell the power you import? And don’t you sell it at a profit? So what the heck is your point? Kindly allow us not to consider you dumb, madam. Speak sense.
We have a bad govt; period. They have no brains.
Recover what when your tarrif is subsidised and not cost reflective!!
There IS NOTHING TO RECOVER FROM THESE MONKEYS IN A MAIZE FIELD – Theirs is just to SPEND & STEAL – what better opportunity – where did the money come from suddenly??
With a bit of FORETHOUGHT, THIS MONEY COULD HAVE BEEN SPENT ON A LONG TERM POWER GENERATION PROJECT – They are trying to DUPE VOTERS such that after elections, they will get rid of the ship & BACK TO BLACK OUTS becoz IT IS NOT A PERMANENT SOLUTION THAT these kolowes have opted for – DO THEY EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH POWER IS LOST DURING TRANSMISSION OVER SUCH LARGE DISTANCES????
Power was stable during festival period due to industrial break? Can we substantiate that statement Electrical engineers?? What does the statement imply? No switching on power means saving on supplied load?
So we have been importing but i have not seen any changes in loadshelding if anything the situation is from good to bad now to worse.
Anyway this is Zambia where people say nangu Chipuba ni Chipuba chesu
Continue with your chipubas
This is where it becomes very irritating!! What we want is a road map to ending even this power imports!What a Parliament,what a useless opposition in parliament?? If we are importing and spending so much,where is the short,medium and long term(for power self sufficiency and general energy security)?? When do we expect to bridge the deficit 1000MW? How much investment have we garnered so far into power generation and where is a schedule of when these projects will be coming on stream? What is the plan with other hydro power potentials and other sources? Before you were lying that the problem would end in Dec’15 then you moved March’16 and now..? These are questions the opposition should be asking you!! Please reorder your priorities:we do not need to spend $400m on CB roads when we…
..continued…we do not need to spend $400m on CB roads when we don’t have power to run mines and industries!
@Zambia Is Ours
This is what we get when we put such people in Govt. We should not blame them; we should blame ourselves. They told us they had no vision, but we went ahead to elect them anyway. Let’s SUCK IT UP until we wake up!
They spend on roads because that is where they steal from. That $400 million could have built a large solar thermal plant instead. By now load shedding could have been gone.
@Zambia is Ours: you should not blame the opposition who are not running the govt. How are the opposition responsible for this mess? Also this story is about what lies Dollar made to Parliament and not the complete parliamentary proceedings. You will not know what the opposition said on the matter unless you read the verbatim Hansard. If you want the opposition to be responsible for the power shortages, then vote them into power in August, not these PFools.
Can Zesco tell us how much profit they made in the period in question? Now wonder we are so poor and you surely can blame God about the tragedy in African leadership? Zambians think beyond party lines this is a scandal.
“She stated that ZESCO is currently importing power at a higher rate than the price the utility was selling to its customers.”
Useless bloggers who cant reason and critically look at things! Because of bloggers like the ones commenting above Zambia can develop because you guys are just empty tins!
Useless bloggers who cant reason and critically look at things! Because of bloggers like the ones commenting above Zambia can’t develop because you guys are just empty tins!
Ndeloleshafye!
Is that all you are going to do? Just watching the bastar1ds and their bitches destroying our country! You can do or say something instead of just watching! It’s almost as if you are party to incompetence and general stup!dity that’s the order of the day in Zambia.
27 cents per kilowatt hour? Quite expensive. Remember all that power does not reach Zambia as some is lost during transmission, so it could be 28-29 cents in reality!
Why is she just lamenting without giving any way forward to getting things back to normal? We need this problem tackled with the seriousness it deserves. How I wish govt would put as much effort in solving our pressing problems as they do in campaigning for elections and self-praise!
Ms. Siliya told Parliament in a ministerial statement that out of that amount, Government transferred US$32.5 million to ZESCO to help finance the power importation arrangements.
When the money is transferred to ZESCO…that’s when it starts to become muddy; these guys came name any figure like they are doing and simply pocket the difference; tell me who is going to whistle-blow at ZESCO when they are all hand picked and benefiting..when have we ever seen ZESCO audited? There is no shame in them importing even 200mw from a single vessel imagine? They have changed from Aggreko to Kapowership ..how are they selecting these companies ..the opportunity for kick backs here is clear for all to see.
@Jay Jay,agreed!! This way of just announcing things without an holistic explanation is dangerous. Like you have pointed out we do not know if the price at which we buying from these ships is the most competitive one or we have people benefiting from our crisis! We don’t meet these ministers and we have no avenue to directly confront them but we expect our MPs especially from the opposition to ask pointed questions and keep these Ministers on their toes! This is one issue they need to come out clear and clean on otherwise this “don’t kubeba” way running national affairs is completely unacceptable on this serious national crisis.
govnt is under pressure to save the jobs of the remaining miners, so they have to keep up with electric supply. the mines are also under pressure to rump up production in order to run profitably. The problem is bigger than we think.
If the mines were under pressure by the shareholders …they would have continued with the job cuts..you dont own the mines get that simple: high production doesn ot always equate to profit…even a farmer knows that!!