GOVERNMENT has apologized to the nation for the continued blackouts being experienced in most part of the country.
This has been attributed to suspected defective Isolator on Kafue Gorge Line 2 at Leopards Hill sub-station.
Mines,Energy and Water Development permanent Secretary Charity Mwansa said as a result of the power failure,ZESCO had lost about 900 mega watts from Kafue Gorge power station and 655 mega watts from Kariba North Bank Power Station.
Addressing Journalist in Lusaka yesterday,Ms Mwansa said the suspected defective isolator on Kafue Gorge Line 2 at Leopards Hill had been isolated out of the circuit.
She said ZESCO also experienced transmission failure on the lines from Kariba North Bank into Leopards Hill which affected not only Lusaka but Copperbelt as well.
Ms Mwansa said :” We would like to apologize to the nation for the occurrence blackouts being experienced in most part of the country except for Southern and Western provinces because its connected to Victoria Falls and we hope our valued customers will understand and bear with us.”
She said by 9 hours yesterday morning power was restored at least to most part of Lusaka and by 10 hours power supply was also restored to some part of the Copperbelt and central provinces.
She said a team of expert were currently on the ground investigating the cause of the problem.
“A team has already being deployed to patrol the lines between Leopards Hill 330KV substation and Kabwe 330KV substation to find out the exact fault,” Ms Mwansa said.
Yesterday Zambia was plunged into a power outage for four hours following a system failure at the Kafue Gorge power station.
The power outage which was experienced between 07:00hours to 11:30 hours affected several businesses in various towns.
ZESCO Director of Corporate Affairs and Business Development Bestty Phiri confirmed in a statement that power was lost to all parts of the country except part of Southern and Western provinces.
Ms Phiri said Southern and Western provinces where not affected and continued receiving power from Victoria Falls power station.
She attributed the poweroutage to a system disturbance which resulted into loss of generation at the power station.
“ZESCO suffered a system disturbance at 07:41hours that resulted into loss of generation at Kafue Gorge power station.
“ As a result, power was lost to all parts of the country except part of Southern and western provinces which continued to be supplied from Victoria Falls power station,” she said
Ms Phiri said the restoration process commenced immediately after the system disturbance and by 09:00 hours power was restored to most parts of Lusaka while Copperbelt and Central provinces power was restored by 10:00 hours.
She regretted the inconvenience caused to ZESCO’s customers.
In Kitwe, business came to a standstill in the central business centre as most shops, business centre’s and Shoprite stores were closed leaving customers stranded as they could not be attended to.
ALCOTECH Zambia limited secretary Mwamba Chileshe said ZESCO should have put in places measures to avoid such a power outage.
Ms Chileshe said ZESCO should have also announced that there would be no electricity for a certain period of time to prepare their clients for such eventualities.
She said four hours was too long for the company to lose business and would not be compensated by the power utility company.
However, Kitwe Central Hospital (KCH) was not affected because the institution relied on its generator for power.
In Chingola and Chililabombwe power was only restored after midday.
No hurricanes, no typhoons, no earthquakes, no snow storms, and no tornadoes, but you still experience frequent power outages.
God forbid with a all that we would have eternally lived in stone age times
I was thinking the same.
The answer lies in the only force of nature you left out. One more destructive than all the ones you listed combined…sheer stupidity. Never under estimate the mega power of stupidity.
I don’t why we are being exposed to people kissing everyday. Yesterday it was Scott vs Masebo. Is this LT turning into KitweTimes?
Probably that’s why the PF are switching off electricity, is to have moments of fornicating.
Folks
Lets not jump to blame our engineers. Our engineers have for a long time designed Products and made recommendations to the government to start using home grown products ,but because of “ukulilamo” culture the government appointed bosses shoot down such initiatives.
Besides ZESCO s’ maintenance budget has been drastically cut to pay for never ending bye-elections.
So its only right to apportion the blame on Sata the VSTC and his government for these power outages. He promised to sort out this problem in 90 days but upto now 90 days has not passes according to him. I wonder which calendar he is using and how long a day is in his confused brain.
Charity Mwansa (R) is playing with a tonga bull, they don’t miss the target. Costain will hit it hard in a way she never forget. If she is married that will be the end of their marriage.
Tonga bulls with their MABISI they are deadly in bed. Never let your women smile at them unless they are ready to leave their men.
Once again the PF govt proving they are as incompetent as the ANC with their fake interpreter bcoz they all faked their way to power.
Just a concern on the calibre of electrical engineers.We have half baked engineers thats why power outrages will continue even after the year 2099 .
Lusambo, this is its not a case in which the calibre of our electrical engineers is to be questioned. Being an engineer myself, I believe that Zambia has a load of very competent individuals. The problem is that in Zambia, just like most of Africa, decisions are not based on merit but on the fact that is one a political figurehead or not. It is because of this scenario that the Roads Dvlpmt. Agency is directed from state house. By all means, what qualification does the President have to oversee the design, let alone the resurfacing work of a road!?! Going by the way things are in Zambia, I hope there will be anything that is functional in the coming years. Our politicians must leave the development to technocrats! We have proven ourselves in class and now we want to perform in reality…
Zambian Engineers can only do complex calculations on paper!
If we truly have engineers, why are we still importing transformers and everything else from elsewhere? We should be boasting of real surplus in hydroelectric power with so many rivers in the subregion.
The reality is we still need expatriate engineers to help ours tick since the they can only work on what their counterparts hand down!
Sorry local engineers but this is the reality on the ground!
Dimwit, I disagree with your views — some questions you may want to ask yourself are: 1) Has any govt of the day given local engineers a fair chance to work and perform their duties? 2) Do your leaders (who have all the power on earth) actually ask for opinions from local engineers? 3) Have you performed a search to see how many locally educated engineers are performing at excellence in other countries where they are given a fair chance? Brother, my advice to you is investigate before you get excited about using the internet and penning down your opinions. And for your own knowledge, even superpowers like the USA/UK/France all import transformers and other products from elsewhere (China in particular). This is by no means a measure of the caliber of an engineer. (to be continued)
Have you forgotten that
1) FTJ was giving away homes without an evaluation. Whilst the country is flooded with Bldg Economists/Evaluators etc. FTJ was doing his own on-site evaluations just to win a vote!
2) Whilst there are planners in the country, Mwanawasa was just waking up and allocating plots near independence stadium without any planning.
3) Whilst they are educated lawyers in the country, you have Kabimba who has never won a case be a Justice Minister.
4) in fact, you even had some ‘silly” education minister claim that “education was not a priority” for zambia!
So, my fellow brothers, let us engineers just practice our knowledge! Give us a fair chance. Don’t relegate us to being incompetent because the priorities of a govt are “messed” up…
is sata in zambia.?
a) yes
b) no
c) neither a or b
d) do not know ,,,,,, come on guys let’s have some answers
Half baked electrical engineers from CBU what do you expect? Qualifications thru exam leakages results in perpetual power outrage.what apology can gvt give if it can not reasses its entire zesco mgt? Shame on our fake engneers who should be charged like masumba and mpombo.
90 Days no load shedding or outages!
Yet Scott adamantly declares that PF has delivered on all their promises. Yes, they sure have, on every lie they campaigned on.
This is too seriuos to be casually treated like this. When a country experiences a black out, it has far reaching implications on the security and economy of the country. It is such incidences that deserve Commissions of Inquiry.
There have been Commissions of Inquiry into such incidents in the past- the problem has been that ZESCO has never implemented the measures recommended by such Commissions due to continued changes in senior Management. Zambians should simply ask Chitundu why the variuos recommendations of past Commissions have not been implemented. In the absence of a satisfactory answer, Chitundu should be fired for endanfering the Nation.
That’s nonsense. Can people be serious with their jobs. The problem with ZESCO is they do not have proper maintenance programs. Surely an Isolator can not bring the entire country to a standstill. That’s just a simple device that needs to be greased and brushed periodically. People should be fired for this, even its someone,s Bululu. Take a leaf from CEC who have 1 of the best maintenance programs in the world.
Kamwala South in Lusaka has been experiencing frequent outages for the past two years now; what fault is this? You chaps have just failed us. Do you know how much the wheels of economy loses each time you good for nothing chaps black us out?
Hope the guys in the pictuer are both single, cause thta look is fimo fimo
seems the T guy can’t resist the B beauty. #observing#
Totally shameful that such a thing could happen barely a week after getting assurances from ZESCO MD that load shedding will soon be a thing of the past. We have a lot of confidence in Zambian Engineers trained by UNZA but now I have started having doubts about the caliber that ZESCO has chosen for itself! An “Isolator”could have been faulty but someone should have been responsible to ensure that the equipment is always serviced to avoid such dangerous and shameful outages and contingency measures put in place to ensure continuous flow of power as long as it is being generated!! So someone is at fault,not just the Isolator as we are being told – so he/she must be isolated and punished instead of hiding in a piece of equipment which cannot answer for itself when there pipo responsible.
Chitundu was removed out by Late Mwanawasa (MHSRP) because he failed to perform and was replaced by Sisala who tried his level best but now see the bringing back Chi-tribe what are we experiencing is terrible.
So that is the way u debate?Be factual and objective.Many are reading wat u read so be reasonable enough and have a conscience.The President has intrusted jobs in his various nationals bt wat do they do?They ‘ve become saboteurs.Shame!
The problem is the relatives he gas given hobs to. They have no qualifications for the jobs they hold. I can’t imagine what happened in hospitals when there was a Sudden black out. To make matters worse no one will be held accountable for this terrible blackout.
That’s what corruption,tribalism and nepotism can do.Surely dat never started during de presidency of Micheal. We re reaping from de demonic seeds (listed above)planted over time.The earlier the pf dug deeper into this de better.Sabotuers at work!
Those vices have produced incompetent zesco employees who don’t deserve to be in this vital parastetal company.Can an inquiry b put in place 2 bring out o that’s made de company 2 b a useless 1 run by useless individuals only interested in money!
If heads don’t roll on this one when are they going to roll?Y should we depend on foreigners to come and do what we can easily do?kanshi mwefibena Zambia mwa bashani?l voted 4 pf to come and clean o the system. Please pf fire the idi ots !
Govt must only appologies for employing incomptent employees at zesco.l have observed the calibre of some of the engineers when they are making explainations as to how some zesco components operate.lt is sad! failueres. Educated i di ots!
That was too close – Costain and Charity! For sure wrong bells were ringing in their heads. When a woman get that close to start inhaling a man’s breath then you know that it’s Bingo!
This government promised us during the campain that their will be no loadshading. and when he spoke these things he was tising RB. But chili pamuzako chili paliwe.
Sat has failled the administration and affairs of this country. what is friday chilufya still doing in the embassy of Zambia here in Ottawa. Its because now they are boyfriend to The new Deputy Ms Silvia Chalikosa, who happends to be satas niece. Mr Friday Chilufya who is the First Secretary Economics and First secretary Press in Washington they cant be recalled why is it because they are Bemba’s and Chilufya is Miss Chalikosas curent boyfriend. so shes busy sending and caalling PS foreign affairs not to recall Friday Chilufya and the PS has no say coz she is scared of the family tree in Canada mission in ottawa. Shame
These Bembas have failed to govern this country because their tribalism acts. The !Di0T$ needs to be voted out.
They are spoiling our united &
beloved country Zambia.
Even RB was much better than
this bemba chap who is only
developing muchinga and luapula province
Bloggers! Just imagine what happens in terms of war with this poor connectivity. This happened once during MMD reign and the opposition attributed this kind of outage to vote rigging. We are years away from elections what could be the reason now?
i would like a comment from mushota?
The problem at Zesco could have been resolved long before,but Zesco prematurely retires good engineers out of vindictiveness ,chitundu only wants to work with dull pipo,wait for more blackouts zambians
Dear Watchdog Editor, Bestty Phiri is not a Ms. The article above bear a wrong designation. He should be addressed as Mr Bestty Phiri. He is a gentleman, not a lady.
Grateful you make corrections. Thank you
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