INVESTIGATIONS BY THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN POWER POOL STILL UNDERWAY ON WHAT LED TO THE POWER OUTAGE LAST NIGHT
Highlights from the joint press briefing by Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary Peter Mumba, Ministry of Information and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana and Acting ZESCO Managing Director Justin Longo
✅️ Government says investigations by the Southern African Pool (SAPP) have been constituted on what led to the power outage last night in both Zambia and Zimbabwe.
✅️ Acting ZESCO Managing Director Justin Longo said there was a power disruption on the Zambia and Zimbabwe interconnector whose cause is still unknown.
✅️ According to him, the country has been experiencing six to seven hours of power rationing from November 1 to November 16 2024, while from November 16 to November 24 ZESCO cut the line from Namibia connecting to the national grid and is performing other maintenance works, resulting in three to five hours of power rationing.
✅️ He said power rationing between six to seven hours will be normalized as soon as Zambia’s connection to Zimbabwe is restored.
✅️Meanwhile, Mr Mumba said last night at 20:15 hrs the country experienced a power system disturbance leading to loss of power supply that affected the whole country.
✅️ He said Zambia and Zimbabwe are interconnected and that at the same time Zambia experienced power outages, Zimbabwe did too.
✅️ ZESCO Limited moved in quickly and worked tirelessly to resolve the unplanned outage.
✅️ Meanwhile, Mr. Mumba said during the power outage, an undisclosed number of miners were trapped in two different mines underground which include a Chinese company in Chambishi and Mopani mine Mindolo shaft.
✅️ In this regard, the workers who were trapped were all safely rescued as the mines were supplied with an alternative power supply.
✅️ Mr Mumba commended ZESCO for moving in quickly to commence the restoration process of power.
✅️ He also commended citizens for their understanding and that government will endeavour to keep the country informed for any eventualities.
✅️ Meanwhile, Ministry of Information and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana said the Ministry of Health was on the ground to ensure that all critical installations in all medical facilities across the country were working during the power outage.
✅️ In this regard, the emergency power systems that have been put in all medical facilities across the country kicked in during the power outage.
✅️ Mr. Kawana assured the nation that no lives were lost as a result of the power outage specifically at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and that power was restored within 30 minutes.