ZESCO has revealed that Zambia has achieved an electricity generation surplus of 1,156MW (Megawatts) following the successful commissioning of 4x150MW capacity from the 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower Power Station.
ZESCO Managing Director Eng. Victor Mapani said currently the installed national generation capacity stands at 3,456.8MW against a peak national demand of approximately 2,300MW.
Eng. Mapani told a high-level Panel Discussion at the ongoing Association of Power Utilities of Africa (APUA) meeting in Dakar, Senegal that ZESCO was using internally generated resources to progress the 750MW project, being constructed at a cost of approx.$2.3Billion to completion by November of 2022 at a cost of US $2.3Billion following non-disbursements by the project financiers.
“Currently four out of five units are already commissioned and running. We expect to commission the last 150MW machine, unit 5 by November this year. With this development, and factoring in Independent Power Producers, we currently stand at a national generation installed capacity of 3,456.8MW, against a peak national demand of approximately 2,300MW. We thus have a surplus of 1,156.8MW that is available for trade within the interconnected SAPP network,” said Eng. Mapani
Eng. Mapani, who is the immediate Past President of Association of Power Utilities in Africa (APUA), was making a presentation under the theme – implementation of the 2063 Agenda of the African Union with respect to the development of the power sector in Zambia.
He said the availability of reliable electricity is underpinning the current rebound of Zambia’s economy.
“Since we are able to meet national demand, we have seen Zambia’s economy grow from a receding Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020 to three (3) percent growth in 2021 across all sectors. With this background, we are ambitious that the national GDP growth will soon reach levels of (5) five to (7) seven percent in the next (3) three to (5) five years,” he said.
“The stable economic growth has also seen year-to-year end inflation drop from 21 percent to 9.7 percent in the month of June 2022. Our service virtually services and supports all key sectors including mining, agriculture, commerce, tourism, health and education. We now hope to venture and exploit the transportation sub-sector too through establishment of charging points nationwide to back the evolution of Electric Motor Vehicles,” he added
Zambia, an established member of both the APUA and the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP) is currently undertaking construction of transmission lines to ensure ZESCO remains at the centre of power trading among the Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern African states.
ZESCO is currently anchoring the construction of the transmission line to connect Zimbabwe-Zambia-Botswana-Namibia (ZiZaBoNa) Interconnector while at the same time is collaborating on the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya (ZTK) Interconnector.
ZESCO already operates strong regional interconnectors which include the Kariba 330kV lines to ZESA, Zimbabwe; the Sesheke-NamPower 220kV line to Namibia, the CEC 220kV lines to SNEL in DRC and the Kazungula-Kasane 66kV line to Botswana.
Other strong regional transmission lines include cross-border power supplies including the Mafinga-ESCOM 33kV line with Malawi; the 33/11kV border supplies with SNEL (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the Mbala-Sumbawanga 66kV Line and Mbozi-Tunduma 33kV Line to Tanzania.
The electricity generation surplus did not come by magic. PF borrowed money and invested heavily in this. Let the UPND praise-singers tell us if this could have been achieved through PPP.
Give this man a pay-rise if his claims of ending load shedding are true. Let the surplus be used to transform the rail industry which is crying out for electric trains.
Why get a payrise for doing what is basic in his contract? I think you have never seen the benefits these MDs get at ZESCO.
Why are we reading about this now when this MD is in Dakar reading speeches…it high time these ZESCO MDs are more accessable to the media for Q & As and not just hiding behind their PR depts.
PF projects are producing surplus electricity generation
ECL told us about ending load shedding and having surplus electricity. Nothing new because the demonised PF planned well
This is premature talk. Wait until September.
Sounds like a lot. But if just ONE generator at Kariba gives up – which regularly happens – it’s back to loadshedding. And all those interconnectors? Surely they are going to be used to EXPORT that small surplus, not to keep it for a rainy day.
Jealous ba PF cadres. We beat you with the highest number of teachers recruited ever in Zambia-COmbined. Now we are beating with loading which you were struggling for 10years. withing one year and you have surplus electricity….ahahahhahahahahhahahahhahhahahah!
You are such a lier. You are not even ashamed to say what you are saying. Where in the world is it possible to build the power generation capacity being talked about here within a year? You UPND/HH worshipers are simply going mad with your sick praise singing. PF did a lot of things wrong, but there are some things they did right, and INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING and BUILDING was one of them. Let us see if UPND/HH Will top that, Zambians are watching and waiting. Sooner than later, judgement day will be upon you!
We need more Zambians to have access to electricity. Review exorbitant connection fees & deal with backlog and as HH said review exorbitant commercial rates you charge SMEs so that they can grow.
LT, I have a simple but sincere question for you: Do all my comments/posts have to go through “Your comment is awaiting moderation” B4 they are posted? Because even the most benign comments seem to VIOLET some kind of secret LT INDESCENCY CODE people are unaware of. Recently I have noticed, with dismay, how every comment I post on this forum it is straight away sent to the “Your comment is awaiting moderation” waiting room. Can you just be honest and ban certain points of view if that’s your current unstated policy. And some of us will gladly move on to some other platforms. Thanks.