Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) Chief Mechanical Engineer Edward Simbaya says the rehabilitation and up grading of power on the Kariba extension project will cost approximately US $820 million.
Mr Simbaya said the schedule to normalize the situation at the Kariba North Bank Power Station extension is on course.
He explained that the power station currently has four power stations with a capacity of 600 mega watts.
He added that the extension is expected to add two more power stations which will give a power outage of 360 mega watts.
Mr. Simbaya further said that after the completion of the extension of the power station the utility company under the Kariba North Bank Power Station will be able to supply a total of 1080 mega watts.
He said this during a client tour of the Kariba North Bank power station in order to allow clients to have a clear picture of the operation of the nation’s main power utility company. The clients in the tour were picked on random.
Meanwhile Mr. Simbaya has also disclosed that fire that broke out at the power station has had less effect on the power utility because the clearing up of the station and rehabilitation has been done by ZESCO Staff.
Mr. Simbaya promised customers that the situation is expected to normalize by mid next year because an assessment has already been done on the works.
Mid this year the second largest power station in the country, Kariba North Bank was partly gutted which forced the power utility company to increase load shedding to most of its customers in order to sustain the existing power stations.
ZANIS
After my morning smook of marijuana got on the net only to be shocked that zesco has a commencial bank.
# 1 u definitely smoked
That’s a huge staggering Billion Dolar $$$$$$$ figure!!! my foot!!!!!
Actually,,,, Million Dollar $$$$$$$$$$$$$ Dollar Sum, My other foot!!!!!
Simbaya’s statement is confusing how can a power station have 4 power stations in one. Did he mean four generators or something else. We need more clarification on this matter. Zesco problems will take along time to end. Congo despite its many serious problems like civil wars etc has no problem in generating hydro power. There is something wrong the way we conduct business.
Its actually 4 turbines not stations, which are currently at 150MW capacity each. The rehabilitation is supposed to upgrade them to 180MW each. Plus two new turbines to be installed with 180MW capacity each. This will now add up to a total of 1080MW.
Had the government listened to the office for promoting private power investment and world bank 7 years ago when they wanted to do it at a cost of $600m none of this would be happening..we have clowns in our government. We have to wait till sh$t burns in order to act. That amount is much more than the combined totla of what we sold our mines for.