Zambia: Load Shedding Hits Zambians In New Year

Zambians will, from today Tuesday 3rd January 2023, start experiencing power rationing across the country, Zesco Limited has announced.

The power utility, in a statement, said the load shedding has become necessary due to the drastic reduction in the water level in the Kariba reservoir.

“As of 31st December 2022, the water level was at 475.60 meters above sea level, a situation that has necessitated the reduction of generation at the 1080MW Power Station facility to below 400MW, thereby affecting the ability to meet the system load/customer power demand, especially during morning and evening peak demand periods,” the company said in a statement.

 Zesco further explained that its inability to meet the power demand shall further be compounded by the planned outage of a 150MW generator at Maamba Collieries Limited Power Plant for routine annual maintenance scheduled to take place from the 4th to the 20th of January 2023.

 “The compounded generator outage at Maamba Coal Thermal Power Plant, coupled with the critically low water level at Kariba reservoir, will lead to ZESCO carrying out a rotational load shedding exercise which will now commence on Tuesday, 3rd to 25th January 2023,” it said.

 The firm, however, stated that to mitigate the effects of load shedding, ZESCO will endeavour to optimise electricity generation at all other power-generating stations to the extent that the integrity and safety of the power system are safeguarded.

 “ZESCO will continuously notify its customers and the public on the power availability status through various electronic and print media houses. As a safety precaution, customers are advised to treat all power supply lines to be live, as power may be restored before the scheduled time,” the statement concluded.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com