Government has announced the increase in power rationing to 17 hours with effect from Sunday, 1 September 2024 owing to constant reduction in water levels at Kariba Dam.
Speaking at the National Energy Brief held today, Friday 16 August 2024, at the Energy Regulation Board Head Office in Lusaka, Energy Minister Makozo Chikote disclosed that the Kariba dam remains with only about 10 percent of usable water for power generation against a relatively high-water utilization rate to sustain demand.
“With the impending depletion of ZESCO’s water allocation at Kariba, the power deficit is expected to increase by 300 Megawatts while the inevitable scheduled maintenance at Maamba is expected to cause another 135 Megawatts deficit during the month of September 2024,” he said.
Mr. Chikote added:” Given all these factors, it is necessary to consider extending the current power rationing hours especially for residential customers. From last week’s update, ZESCO did indicate that the average power rationing time was 14 hours per day. Therefore, the nation is now informed that the official power rationing hours will extend to 17 hours daily effective 1st September 2024.”
Meanwhile Government through ZESCO Limited is actively pursuing additional power imports from the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP) with a view to minimise the impact increased power rationing will have to productive sectors of the economy such as mining, manufacturing and SMEs.
“168 Megawatts has been secured from Eskom of South Africa and another 50 Megawatts is being negotiated from SAPP and expected to start flowing by Wednesday, 21 August 2024,” Mr Chikote said.
The Energy Minister has further disclosed that Government is currently consulting various stakeholders in order to design a tariff mechanism that allows the utility to recover its cost during the drought response period.
“I must hasten to inform you that, the current ZESCO tariffs are insufficient to meet the cost power imports. Currently, ZESCO is importing power for as high as US$12.6 Cents per Kilowatt-hour against a local regulated tariff of US$4.1 Cents per Kilowatt-hour against a local regulated tariff of US$4.1 Cents per Kilowatt-hour. The gap between ZESCO’s buying and selling price continues to widen every day and consequently becoming unsustainable.”
