Minister of Energy, Makozo Chikote, has announced that the country will face 17hours of loadshedding effective 1st September, 2024.
Mr. Chikote says this is due to the impending depletion of Zesco’s water allocation at Kariba dam.
Speaking during a press briefing in Lusaka today, Mr. Chikote said that the power deficit is expected to increase by 300mw, while the inevitable scheduled maintenance at Maamba is expected to cause another 135mw deficit during the month of September 2024.
“Given all these factors, it is necessary to consider extending the current power rationing hours especially for residential customers,” said Mr. Chikote.
He said that government is however through ZESCO actively pursuing additional power imports from the Southern African Power Pool, with a view to minimise shocks to productive sectors of the economy such as mining, manufacturing and SMEs.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chikote disclosed that the current ZESCO tariffs are insufficient to meet the cost power imports.
He said that currently, ZESCO is importing power for as high as us$12.6 cents per kilowatt-hour against a local regulated tariff of $4.1 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Mr. Chikote said that the gap between Zesco’s buying and selling price continues to widen every day and consequently becoming unsustainable.
He said that to this effect, government is consulting with various stakeholders in order to design a tariff mechanism that allows the utility to recover its cost during the drought response period.
Angel Kasabo
