Dear Editor,
Can someone please explain to me why we are still so having many hours of load shedding in Zambia? Yes I saw the recent press release from ZESCO that there will be additional loadshedding hours added to the already existing loadshedding hours because they have lost 132MW from one of their generating units. But even without maintenance we still have load shedding. Is every dam in Zambia flooding EXCEPT the Kariba dam? Please someone , any engineer out there to explain for a frustrated layman what the heck is going on in Zambia.Why is lack of electricity the new normal.
Frustrated Zambian
My sentiments exactly. I wonder which mine is using the electricity since mopani and Kcm are not operating at even half capacity. Can govt tell us where all the electricity is going. Rains you still have, the Victoria falls is up to maximum capacity. So why the need for loadshedding unless there is something govt is hiding. Is it the Chinese turbines causing generating problems or what?
The kind of leaders you have ultimately determines the kind of life you will live as citizens. At least people warned you against voting for vision-less bashi Tasila but you went ahead and gave him the mandate. So please live with it and stop complaining, can we sing dununa reverse once more! dununa dununa iwee, ayeeeeee! The simple answer to load shedding is that, the government bought Chines cheap turbines which over heats after running for sometimes, as usual after getting some kick backs. You can fool some people some times, but not all the people all the time.
Itezhi tezhi and Kafue gorge are both doing just fine. Mopani mines on care & maintenance. There ought to be lots of power. I think there’s an export contract Zesco is fulfilling which they won’t disclose to home market consumers.
Exactly! And the itezhi itezhi and kafue gorge are stationed on kafue river which fed by the kafue river running from the copperbelt were we have seen massive flooding this year.
We await the technical experts to pitch in, NOT PF people.
Kaizer, let’s wait and hear before you start commenting.
Incompetence political leadership and incompetent executives at ZESCO. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar, that simple.
All hydro power stations in Zambia should be generating power at full capacity, add to that the thermal power stations and the mines not operating at full capacity on the Copperbelt.
The most at minimum we should be going without power is 4 hours.
Most of our dams and rivers that flood, do so on their way out of the country. Kariba Dam is upstream to most important flooding rivers like the Kafue and the Luangwa. You must have very rudimentary knowledge of Zambia’s geography to even come out of your quarantine to mention this here. But, what’s new? We can, in the unlikely event, work together like bums and do canals fromthe rainy provinces up north to the south where we can channel the water into Karibe. However, half of Kariba is Zimababwean, and that is a failed state… Ifyashala lundenipo mwebalila mu Ndale.
Crooked as usual, always lying , the kafue river starts from the borders of Congo and copperbelt province, runs through central province, the the kafue flats, through to chirundu where it connects to the might Zambezi, copperbelt has never been short of rains, this year they are experiencing flooding to the point where one bridge on Kitwe/Ndola highway was closed due to fears of it been washed away, all that flood waters we saw on the copperbelt are feeding into the hydro power plants stationed along kafue river. Zambezi is feed by waters coming from northwestern province which is also a heavy rainbelt in Zambia and currently experiencing flooding too. Let not crooked lie to you people.
Good morning fellow zambian. I would firstly like to wish you a happy Easter weekend. I know you have all been anxiously waiting for my take on this. Zesco has informed you all that for 10 days from 8 April there will be a reduction in power supply country wide due to a loss of supply of 132MW from one of its independent producers resulting from a fault. As such during maintenance of this issue we will experience load shedding. No need to politicize anything here. Please like the zesco face book page for information rather than remain in the dark.
Who is this independent producer? I hope its not the Indians from maamba power plant, last time we heard maintaince, them Indians came out with truth.
For inflation to reach this negative historic figure, reserves completely depleted, meali meal prices RECORD HIGH, exchange rate of the kwacha to the dollar in free reign, second worst performing currency in the world, let me repeat this IN THE WORLD, and for the country to run completely out of money due to reckless borrowing(clear visionless lack of planning) and for the majority of the people wallowing in poverty, it is clear that it is having a guy like this one called Kaizar being near the corridors of power, You bring the country to its knees and you are still stubborn. I am told even machines producing power are something else. Crystal clear failure. Even governance is at its lowest ebb. I am PF but I cant stomach this very visible failure, I WILL NOT PRETEND, Certainly not me
Chap over rating himself as usual, which normal being can wait for this guys comment. Isnt this the spineless character who kept misleading his boss for us to land the title of the fourth hungriest nation in the world. And the ka chap is still blogging
Your answer countryman lies in P.F Gross incompetence & unfettered Corruption!
Zesco always have this story.water
Levels going down and less rain.
Even a child will not accept the
Same story every time.
I was very clear Kaizer, I said lets wait for experts! and you say that we were eagerly awaiting your comment? LOL.
Happy Easter Kz, hows the sober life going on?
Also last time some 1 year ago zesco increased tarrifs saying that it was necessary so that we can have regular supply. Once the price increased after couple of months load shedding was back although the tarrifs were increased. They say once bitten twice shy…once again in January this year we were told the same story about the tarrifs…once again they were increased and 3 months later back to load shedding. How dull can we be that we are taken for a ride time and time again and we fall for the same tricks.
The problem with Zambia is lack of honest and transparency by those in decision making affront , be it in public or private establishment. It’s an authoritarian culture that Zambia has, such that sharing truth with the public by those in leadership seems to be just a favour and not as an obligation.
ZESCO is being abused by government to stifle its operation thru siphoning it’s income being generated from both local and international tariffs.
PF corruptly made a big mistake to remove the original turbines which used to generate a lot of power in few hours of the day without requiring a lot of water.
Our suspicion now is that ZESCO has opted to supply power to surrounding countries at the expense of the local demand for power.
Spiderly I have never claimed to be a specialist. However, specialists answer to me. So I have data which many of you here don’t. It’s not to belittle anyone but just stating facts.
Happy Easter to you spiderly. I am enjoying sober April and I feel very healthy and good. I am wondering why I even drink. I
They exporting your electricity and selling it at a premium in foreign countries. You guys need to make Mundende talk- this is yo key man to what is happening. Who are they selling the power to and are keeping that money in foreign accounts.
Thats a real question.
Nkuwa explain. This energy crisis in the abundance of water needs proper explanation.
@ Kaizar
would you please be so good and enlighten me what position you hold in the Zambian Government.
Are you the spokesman ore something?
Why are other members of Government NOT writing here?
Is it because you have more time to read newspapers?
What exactly IS your official job?
I totally agree with all those saying this govt is exporting power to other countries at the expense of their own people. I hear they make a lot of money in power exports, the much-needed finances in this debt-ridden economy! And that the turbines are fake and consume a lot of water. These people won’t win a free and fair election next year. Their ‘crimes against humanity’ are too many
When you argue, please argue with facts. Personally I was at at the Kariba Dam last week. I stood on the dam wall itself. West side is Lake Kariba. It is 7.45 meters below where it is supposed to be at this time of the year or at 14.8 % full . Its there, the naked truth. I we Zambians and Zimbabweans are lucky to have as much rains as we had this year, it will take another 3 to 4 years of such rains to fill Lake Kariba. So let us brace ourselves for more LOAD SHEDDING.
The water you see at Vic Falls, is very little to make up what has gone from Lake Kariba over the last 3 to 4 years.
As for the Kafue water, inspite of the recent flooding at Kitwe s Kafue Bridge, it is not of any help. The Kafue has yet to fill the Lukanga Swamp, The Itezhi tezhi Dam, Kafue Flats ( Nakambala Sugar…
With so much rain why do we still have load shedding in Zambia? Can someone please explain to me why we are still so having many hours of load shedding in Zambia?”-LT
The current PF administration sends mixed signals. Quick to arrest, to give orders, to borrow, And blame it on others. “ (Bloomberg) — Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu said he wants the U.S. Ambassador to leave the country after the diplomat criticized the African nation for sentencing a gay couple to 15 years of imprisonment for having a consensual relationship.”
Now it’s coronavirus and prime TV.
Lusaka stock exchange has been stagnant since PF administration took office.
PF Current administration timeout.
Hey wena @Truth, I could hug you if it were not for COVID-19. You say it is authoritarian system yes that is simply the truth. Parastatals and quasi-government bodies are under a vicious psychological coitus lock with those in power to oppress us via authoritarianism. Listen to their names: Zambia revenue authority, Zambezi river authority, higher education authority, national biosafety authority etc. It’s authoritarianism at its fullest.
This is why people believe that PF govt approved to upgrade Kariba with cheap dodgy Chinese turbines and can only run for so long….one thing is true is that they have probably increased in exporting power and misappropriating the funds. I tell you load-shedding will be there in October as they have increased tarrifs and happy with what they are making.
These are wasted Lazy Lungu years!!!
Those gonga turbines PF replaced at kariba plus the fact that ZESCO see more money exporting power than selling locally because of red tape and corruption is why load shedding is persisting …..
Ba Kaizer, a shortfall of 132MW from Mamba Collieries as claimed by ZESCO cannot lead to 15hours of load shedding countrywide! Zambians are not that gullible even though they are too quiet. We know that this is not the truth. We know that Kafue Gorge and Itezi Itezi Dam are being fed by the Kafue river which is breaking its banks. Similarly, the Zambezi plains in N/W and Western provinces are flooded and only last week, the volume of flow at the Victoria Falls was recorded at its highest in over 13 years at this time of the year……meaning generation at Vic Falls should b near full capacity. The flows into the Kariba whose flowrate again has been recorded as much higher than this time last year…..Please give us another reason.
This governments of people without a job description is very dangerous .We now have got Kabova Lusambo acting as the as the police commander in Lusaka and the country rendering Kanganje jobless .In future the police will have problems arresting Lusambo for offences he has done in the past because they are used used to getting orders from him when they in actual fact are supposed to have an independent mind and be led by evidence of crimeand not political directives .
This governments of people without a job description is very dangerous .We now have got Kabova Lusambo acting as the as the police commander in Lusaka and the country rendering Kanganje jobless .In future the police will have problems arresting Lusambo for offences he has done in the past because they are used to getting orders from him when they in actual fact are supposed to have an independent mind and be led by evidence of crime and not political directives . Zambia has gone to the dogs .
KZ is still eating and not enjoying a Humble Pie. He cant even believe nor accept that he has no powers due to being a kakopo that even Lungu can use anymore and I can only sympathise with this little fella with a big ego.
Even when he has all the time in the world to do nothing else but blogging and beating up PF MPs only mapologise 2 days afterwards when gets some of his brains back the scatter brain thinks he is in power. This is psychological and the little fella needs a Psychiatrist although I know it cant work. Watch him, even when UPND forms Govt next year, the confused chap will saying he is still power. In Psychology they call it the “denial” stage od a Deep Depression although with KZ this is developing into Mental Break Down. Lungu has damaged the little fella after using…
My mother always used to say, if you keep you mouth closed , no will one will know how ignorai you are. The writer just exposed his poor understanding of Zambia geography. Zambezi waters have not all reached the Kariba please. Just get Zambia map or Google if you want
There are two types of hydropower plants. A run-of-the-river hydropower plant is a plant that runs on the water that is in the river, with no dam storage, an example being the Victoria Falls Power Station. Last year the Vic Falls almost run dry reducing the power generation drastically. Flows at Victoria Falls increased to 4,289m3/s on 31/03/2020 before dropping to 3,825m3/s on 09/04/2020. Last year on the same date, the flow was only 896m3/s. This means that with this amount of water the Vic Falls Power Station must be generating 108 MW, its maximum capacity. Then there is the hydropower plant with a dam such as the Kariba Dam. Here power is generated by the water head behind the dam also known as potential energy.
Cont’d. The inflow from the rainwater must first flow into the dam to create this water head, which turns into kinetic energy, to turn the turbines to generate electricity. The higher the lake level, the more power that can be generated. The dead storage is 125 billion m3 of water, which cannot be used for power generation. The live storage, water used for power generation, is 65 billion m3 bringing the total capacity to 185 billion m3. The average inflow from all the rain water is 40 billion m3 and clearly this cannot fill the dam in one year. ZRA has allocated ZESCO 11 billion m3, down from 17 billion m3 last year, which can only generate 275 MW, about the same amount from Maamba. Complain to ZRA to allocate more water to ZESCO.
@Voice of reason. The Kafue River joins the Zambezi River after the Kariba Dam. The Luangwa River joins the Zambezi River after the Kariba. Yes these two major rivers, in Zambia, do not contribute to the Kariba Lake.
Nobody is denying that there is more water this year. In fact ZRA is saying that the Zambezi River flows at Chavuma continued increasing peaking for the second time in the season at 5,825m3/s on 6th April 2019 before dropping to 5,726m3/s on 9th April 2020, while the flow observed last year on the same date was 657m3/s.There is nine times more water this year from Chavuma than last year but because of last year’s drought this year’s good rain won’t fill up Kariba Dam.
However, I do not understand why the loss of 132 MW should result in increased load shedding when Mopani Mines likely uses more than 132MW under full production.
The Kariba Dam catchment is not the whole Zanbia but parts of Northwestern, Western and Southern Provinces only. in addition parts of Zimbabwe and Angola also contribute. Average rainfall in Zambia is about 900mm. In the previous season, 2018/2019, Zambia recorded an average of 400mm. This year the average rainfall is just under 800mm the catchment. The total for the two years is therefore 1200mm. To sustain Kariba Dam levels requires two average years which is 900mm x 2= 1800mm. Therefore there is still a deficit of 600mm (1800 -1200). That is why kariba is not full
Quite interesting, the loud mouths don’t even know elementary geography, I.e. which rivers contribute to the Kariba waters. They don’t even know basic data like Kariba water levels standing at under 8% of the level needed to generate electricity as at Dec. 2019. They don’t know rainfall figures and dam design parameters.
Instead of confessing their ignorance and seeking guidance, they insult leaders and mislead the uninformed majority. “Houston, we have a problem “