Zambia's power black-outs to end soon

By Pelekelo Liswaniso

ZAMBIA, like other countries in southern Africa, has been hit by a power shortage and has been rationing electricity supply for some time now.

The beginning of last year in particular brought a challenging period in the electricity sector in the country.

The national power grid failed on January 19, last year, and the whole country plunged into darkness.

Power was only partially restored in the early hours of Sunday, January 20, 2008. It was a difficult period for the nation as all sectors were affected.

Miners were trapped in shafts while other industries could not produce projected quantities as power was unreliable.

The nation was later informed that the black–out was initiated by a disturbance in the Zimbabwean grid, which resulted in the loss of a major load and shut down of the Kariba North Bank power station.

This caused overload and subsequent tripping of the machines at Kafue Gorge and Victoria falls power stations, resulting in the black-out.

Subsequently ZESCO Ltd, deepened power rationing to domestic consumers while the Copperbelt Energy Corporation, which supplies power to the copper and cobalt mines, also cut back supply following disruptions in electricity imports.

Although there is some stability in electricity supply, rationing has continued creating the need for alternative sources of electricity.

It is in this light that government through the Ministry of Energy and Water Development is looking for private partners to finance, construct and operate a hydroelectric power plant located in the Kafue Gorge, approximately 65km upstream of the confluence of the Kafue River with the Zambezi River to provider a source of power to supplement national demand.

Kafue Gorge Lower will be located immediately downstream of the existing 900 megawatts Kafue Gorge Upper hydroelectric power station.

It is therefore a positive development that the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has this week invited officials from the Ministry of Energy and Water Development to Washington, D.C, to initiate discussions on the technical work completed on the Kafue Gorge project.

Once discussions with government are completed and a better understanding of the dam size is proposed, the next step will be to look for investors with knowledge of international best practice in large scale hydro-electric and dam projects as well as experience of working in emerging markets, preferably within the context of Southern Africa.

The need for increased electricity supply cannot be over emphasized because with increased activity in the mines, agriculture and other industries, consumption will also increase.

The country’s population is also on the rise and domestic needs for electricity are also increasing.
We are anxious to see an end to the costly power cuts as they affect production while domestic and industrial machines risk breaking down due to power surges.

The proposed Kafue Gorge hydropower project, which will have a capacity of 750 megawatts, is therefore the country’s only immediate hope that may end the power black-outs.

We urge all the stakeholders in the project to take the negotiations very seriously so that the project can be a reality in record time.