Page 9 - AfrElec Week 02 2023

AfrElec POLICY AfrElec

Zambia’s president chairs

emergency weekend meeting

to tackle electricity shortage

ZAMBIA ZAMBIA’S President Hakainde Hichilema water quota for that year. However, a few days
has expressed concern over poor management later, Zimbabwe announced it had agreed with
of a major hydropower plant that his country Zambia to produce a maximum of 300MW from
co-owns with neighbouring Zimbabwe, amidst the dam, whose usable storage had depleted to
a sudden and severe electricity shortage. 4.6%.
Hichilema posted on social media on Sunday Copper-rich Zambia recently announced it
(January 8) that systems and processes had been will begin a 12-hour electricity rationing regime
neglected at Lake Kariba, where his country has a due to the reduced capacity at Lake Kariba fol-
facility to generate 1,080MW, to the point where lowing a drought in 2022. Zimbabwe, on the
there was no proper monitoring, evaluation, and other hand, has an 18-hour load management
sharing of critical information by different stake- schedule, which started around November 2022.
holders timeously. On Saturday, Hichilema, held an emergency
“The Kariba Dam is a shared asset between meeting with stakeholders in the local energy
Zambia and our counterparts in Zimbabwe, industry. Speaking at the event, he said that
run by the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA),” he independent power producers (IPPs) should
said. “We shall therefore be engaging our Zimba- come on board and expressed his administra-
bwean counterparts to ensure optimisation and tion’s commitment to fixing any laws that might
effective use of this reservoir. We are told that it is be impeding the operations of the IPPs.
evident that we need to enhance compliance lev- On Sunday, he took site visits to the 300MW
els in this facility in terms of water management.” Maamba coal-fired plant and Lake Kariba, where
On November 25, 2022, ZRA ordered Zim- he told managers to schedule plant maintenance
babwe to stop producing electricity on its side in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the
of the lake, saying the country had exhausted its power supply. ™

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