ZESCO Managing Director Victor Mundende has said that the power utility company is making frantic effort to ensure the Kafue Gorge Lower Power Project is fully commissioned before the end of 2020.
Mr. Mundende said that the power station currently under construction and nearing completion will have a significant impact on load shedding the country is experiencing.
Mr. Mundende said that the first unit will be synchronized in April 2020, with the rest of the units following in a phased approach until end of 2020.
Mr. Mundende explained to journalists in Kafue Gorge Lower that while the country is experiencing load shedding the power utility company is frantically trying to find a lasting solution to the problem, adding that  ZESCO will also continue to pursue alternative energy projects already on the table to insulate the country from economic shocks that come from effects of climate change.
Mr. Mundende said that an agreement, that has already been signed with Electricity De Mozambique (EDM) to construct 1 200 megawatts of the coal-fired thermal power plant, is being pursued closely, adding  that the agreement will also see the construction of a power line and interconnector between Northern Mozambique in Tete Province to Chipata in Eastern Province.
Mr. Mundende further explained that the power utility company has already engaged China Power to construct a 500-megawatt solar power station by the end of 2020.
He said construction works on the 248-megawatt Kalungwishi hydropower and the 100 megawatts wind power projects to be done by Access in Serenje will commence this year.
And Kafue Gorge Lower Power Project Director Wesley Lwiindi said all electro-mechanical components of the power station have been manufactured and are currently being assembled.
Mr. Lwiindi said of the four high-voltage transmission lines, an interconnector between Kafue Gorge Lower and Upper has been completed, while the transmission lines to Lusaka South MFEZ, Lusaka West and standby are being constructed.
When PF came into power, this project had already been commissioned by RB but in their never ending wisdom, PF cancelled this project which was due to have finished in 2017. Their wisdom again woke up two years after cancelling the project and they re-commissioned it with the same contractors but at an even more expensive cost thereby delaying the project by three years and subjecting us to loadshedding. In short, PF with a little help from climate change are the reason for the 15 hour load shedding that we are currently enjoying.
The PF has vowed never to commission anything unless brown envelopes are exchanged.
They have truly succeeded in taking our country backwards. People are now grateful to have power for 6 hours a day like they are being done a favour.
Enemies of progress at work. Looking for reasons to discredit PF. Your small god ni zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Go PF Go. This year azalila sonta epowabomba tumone.
We heard about that in the last loadshedding season; that time from ECL.
Projects on the table are wish list. Projects yet to kickstart are also wishful ideas.
PF’s energy policy has been sleeping and playing games on the language of loadshedding. This current project is another waterborne construction at the messy of weather patterns.
Kariba and Kafue Gorge Lower Hydro are both waterborne, nothing innovative, nothing hopeful all climate change prone. 55 years of independence, a country plunged into backouts and ugly loadshedding. Mundende, should you be in the Zesco office? I don’t think so.
Let’s develop this thing. It is unelectable.
Zambians like posing in reflective safety vests and safety helmets…if you look at the quality of work…all bull#$@t
BUT BY HOW MUCH WILL LOAD SHEDDING BE REDUCED AT THE END OF THE VARIOUS STAGES OF COMMISSIONING OF THE KLHP?
STATS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.
Well, I hope this really helps. Because I just got back from Zambia not too long ago and I can attest to how load shading is adversely affecting every sphere of life, both business and household level. But how did we let ourselves get to this point? Because some of these things do not need a lifetime to realise we have an urgent national need/problem in order to do something about it….that’s what leadership is all about.
The problem of insufficient power to meet the needs of a growing economy and population has been obvious for a long, long, long time in Zambia. So you wonder why all the successive Govts did not proactively do something about it. Do we really have to wait until we have a crisis and then start scrambling? Our leaders seem to have the same attitude towards taking…
Continue…
care of our garbage in cities and flooding. It is the same problem year after year, decade after decade and no one in Govt seems bothered and in a hurry to solve such problems once and for. Only applying cosmetic solutions when there is a cholera outbreak.
Just a few weeks ago when I was in Zambia, I drove through Kabwe roundabout in Lusaka and the floodwaters were knee-high causing horrible and dangerous traffic conditions. And I am certain this was NOT the first time or first rain season this has happened. And we are talking about in the heart of the CAPITAL CITY OF THE COUNTRY. The question is: who are we waiting for to come and find a lasting solution to simple problem such as building drainage systems that work? Lord have mercy!
@Yambayamba, Welcome to Zambia where Laziness, tribalism, theft and corruption is glorified above anything else.
Sometimes I ask myself whether Zambia is cursed or not. Really how do you explain the yearly flooding of Lusaka CBD year in and out and yet NO ONE has ever come up with a lasting solution?
All that is required is setting up of drainage system that will collect all the rain water. That water can be harvested and used for Agriculture projects.
@Thorn. The Kafue Gorge Upper and so will the Kafue Gorge Lower depend on the water from Itezhitezhi Dam. Its size is only 6,000 million cubic metres and therefore very easy to fill it up as compared to the Kariba Dam reservoir which is 180,000 million cubic metres and it is a mammoth task to fill it up and I can’t see it being filled up any time soon. The same water will produce 120 MW at Itezhitezhi Dam, 1000 MW at Kafue Gorge Upper and instead of the water going to Cabora Bassa it will again produce another 750 MW at Kafue Gorge Lower.
The Kafue Gorge Hydropower Project has been on the drawing board from the 1950s. UNIP developed part of this project around the 1970s using 400m (Kafue Gorge Upper) of head and 200m (Kafue Gorge Lower) of head was to be developed later when the demand for electricity rose. MMD was in power from 1991 to 2011 and the demand for electricity started rising with the privatization of the mines but started making noises about developing this project a month before 2011 elections, clearly an election gimmick because it could have developed this project for the 20 years it was in power.
I have supported the PF after seeing the work done this far. It is true PF would have done even better if they did not delay a number of projects initiated by the previous MMD Govt. Another example is the Lunzua hydro power plant in Mbala which suffered the same fate of delay as the lower Kafue gorge. Our politics must mature into honouring good projects. However, PF must be commended for reversing the sale of Zamtel.
Just look at that picture with fruits and soft drinks for the media, that’s all waste. A company like this needs a cultural mindset change…get rid of all directors, retire all senior managers, to this company wasting resources is the norm.
Even if you hate someone lying about them is more sinful. Go back to the archives of Zambian News and check the timelines that were given infact whilst Mwanawasa was around. Sino Hydro gave year 2020 as the completion time of this project. Shouldn’t you be happy that atleast loadshedding will reduce? Its strange even the number of ticks in support of the wrong information.
Investing in coal is going backwards.
If only these PF had invested a fraction of those Euro bonds that they stole, Zambia would have been exporting power by now. And not “buying” power from ESKOM which never got delivered probably because the money ended up in Chitotela’s account mysteriously.
They are lead by a ‘ lazy sausage ‘ ???
But what do you do with all that coal underground, Australia have the same problem as its a major exporter. I remember back in the day, the National Research Council came up with an idea of utilizing coal stones for cooking as an alternative to cutting down firewood for charcoal, just imagine how that would be viable now, but Research Council is also no more in Chilanga just rubble and dust has remained of it.
Why are you not building power capacity with the aim of eradicating load shedding? Please, I know this is wishful thinking but tougher targets need to be set for people managing these utility companies. Make load shedding illegal and a crime to humanity to set some high standards. Someone must have done a feasibility study on this and if you’re telling us that even when it’s operational, the power consumption needs for the country will not be met then why build the thing in the first place? Just look at the environmental impact of it. ZESCO please stop hiding behind load shedding, you are reversing any tangible gains this country is making.
This project would’ve been completed two years ago but for Sata and PF’s stu.pid-ity. They came in guns blazing in 2011 and cancelled it on grounds of ‘corruption’. They did the same with KKIA. And two years later they awarded the contracts to the same companies they claimed were initially awarded the contracts corruptly. I hate idi oats.
They also cancelled kariba rehab then came back with their own gonga turbines from a Chinese supplier who in one can trace for comments.
THE GREAT LOADSHEDDING P.F, KUYABEBELE!!!
If we want to be fair really, shouldn’t we also be curious about the alleged corruption that led to the contract being suspended or revoked? We are crying about corruption and yet when the Govt tells us that there is reason to believe that a certain contract may have been corruptly awarded we should somehow believe they are being corrupt for doing so. Really…?
Mind you, these were MMD days when it was not unusual or unheard of to have contracts, large and small, corruptly awarded. And I can remember how loudly the CORRUPTION CHORUS was on repeat in this country even then. So it is interesting to see some of you come back on these platforms and pretend like what Pres Sata was alleging was only a figment of his imagination. Nearly everyone of you believed Pres Banda and his Ministers…
Continue….
corrupt to the core and all the contracts awarded under his rule deserved close scrutiny before proceeding any further. And now you are surprised that there is a three-year gap in this project!?
This is the problem we have as Zambians, WE FORGET EASILY. You can lest be assured, even the next Govt (whichever party that may be) will be accused of all sorts of wrong doing and corruption. And the same people who are now here accusing the current Govt of corruption will turn around and pretend like PF Govt officials where the most honest and trustworthy bunch of beurocrates this country has ever known. I guess it is a Zambian trait.
@Yamba: Bwana, you’ve nailed it. Corruption has become a campaign tool for those aspiring for GRZ. Sadly, we fall for it and complain later. Look at the support Kambwili is getting yet this twit forms a party without a manifesto, has active corruption cases in courts. He gets into power tomorrow, we will be asking ourselves the same question-how did we get to this??? For me, we don’t need a change at political level because the calibre of opposition politicians is very low right now.
@Spaka. Please note that the Kariba Rehabilitation Project has nothing to do with the generation of electricity but the rehabilitation of the plunge pool which threatens the safety of the dam wall.
The MMD had no plans for KKIA. I was working for National Airports Corporation until Sata instructed NACL management to start the project.
Mu Tonga chabe,Why these people are bitter? Spaka hamududu,dudulove malambo,anyana chinena etc…your comments are bad as useless as rubbishy as ….as ……as ……
Pf government working tirelessly with parastatals to ensure adequate and reliable electricity supply. The people talk and we listen and act. Simple. Pabwato
Pi$$ off naimwe, 2021 you and your dull grouping are gone.
Okay N3Z Zulu, we hear your violent hot air!
Negative dudeloverboy!
Gone where? Sorry, pf stays in 2021 until the opposition matures up.
My point exactly, Thorn. Opposition is too bitter to be trusted with power. IDC, gold mines, KCM, new power plants is a good foundation for future GRZs. PF for now is ok, we need a new breed of opposition that will continue from where they leave off, not the current situation where those in opposition want to come and undo everything and stage a massive witch hunt against their opponents.
@Dudelove .. you are right. I just wonder whatever REALLY happened in between. Below is what was reported on July 21 2011:
“PRESIDENT Banda yesterday commissioned the construction of the US$2 billion Kafue Gorge Lower Hydro-electric Power Station which will add 750 megawatts of power to the national grid once completed in 2017”
Then four years later on October 20th 2015, when PF was now in power;
“ZESCO has contracted Sinohydro Corporation Limited of China to construct the 750 megawatts (MW) Kafue Gorge Lower (KGL) hydro power station in Chikankata District at a cost of US$2 billion”
MMD never flagged off any power stations. It was all on paper. MMD left in 2011 and power deficits set in 2015. Why didn’t they start construction about 2006 or 2008?? PF has a strong policy on major infrastructural projects just like they have finished off kazungula bridge which previous regimes operated an unreliable pontoon which was set up by rhodesians.
ANOTHER FINANCIAL SCAM! THIS IS FAKE MEANT TO FO.OL THE GULLIBLE. PLEASE IGNORE AND CALL THE POLICE
PF , you’re doing what every government is mandated to do, so don’t expect ama congratulations mama Thankyou ayengi , what’s shocking people is how much you’ve raised the corruption bar,it’s like half going to infrastructure development n the other half in your pockets. CORRUPTION IS OVER THE ROOF bane. You’re setting a bad precedent.
Good work PF, on infrastructure development
Cheers pal
Comment:Truth be told, this Kafue Gorge project is 3 years behind…. Had The PF Govt.not cancelled the contract ,the project could have been completed way back in 2017….
Mokwana mokwana wina azalila mmmmm even if it is 3 or 5yrs behind we are talking about big project sometimes it is good to appreciate the frantic effort the PF is making than just critizing without even offering solutions.mmm I have never seen such type of people,mmm been annoyed for 5 years even the bible discourages that don’t go hungry up to sunset make sure you reconcile.PF we love you we need to forge ahead as a nation,we do not remain behind in terms of infrastructure development don’t listen to Satanist.
What are you bubbling about boss?
People are making serious contributions to the welfare of the Zambian economy and other problems and you are busy making empty comments
mmmm congrats PF for work done go ahead.
PF has made this project over delayed and way over budget.Totally unwise leadership.
The Americans have just finished a big project of building major drainage systems .
It is up to the Government to build and connect their flooded areas to these major drainages.
Please keep cadres away from these works.
..and Mundende says they have signed an Agreement with EDM to construct a 1200Mw Thernal Power station in Mozambique!? Where is the Economic and Financial Feasibility study to justify such an Investment in such an unstable environment?? WHY LEAVE OUR OWN COAL IN ZAMBEZI VALLEY;Maamba,Sinazeze,Sinazongwe AND RUN TO Mozambique! When are all other power stations mentioned going to come on board – NO TIME FRAMES or are they waiting for brown envelops to exchange hands?
Construction of the kafue lower power station is a very brilliant idea as the power plant utilizes the effluent from kafue gorge power station.
Let me remind readers what Hon Minister Nkuwa of energy at one time last year said of increasing water flow in Zambezi by constructing canals from Congo. I wish to request that Mr. Nkuwa should not think that way however look at internal water bodies in Zambia. Every time you look for solution from Congo, ensure that there is already major source and Congo become minor source. This was demonstrated by Dr. Kenneth kaunda on the peddical vs Tuta road. These was a result of the suffering we went through at the hands of kabokes-congolese.
So then what’s the solution to lower water flowing in kafue river which will be major power supply of Zambia…