THE ENERGY SITUATION IS A BIT DIRE AND WE MAY BE IN THE DARK FOR SOME TIME – BINWELL MPUNDU

THE ENERGY SITUATION IS A BIT DIRE AND WE MAY BE IN THE DARK FOR SOME TIME

By Hon. Binwell Mpundu, Nkana MP

We have just concluded our tour of the Itezhi Tezhi power generation plant which plant has an installed capacity of 120 Megga Watts but is only producing around 40 MW because of low water levels in the Itezhi Tezhi Dam.

We have also learnt from the presentations that the Kafue River Basin has three power stations (ITEZHI TEZHI POWER STATION ,KAFUE GORGE POWER STATION AND THE KAFUE GORGE LOWER POWER STATION)which in total have an installed capacity of 1850 MW and all feeds from the Itezhi Tezhi lake and Dam and sadly the three power stations are only producing a total of around 500 Mega watts out of the 1850 MW

We have also learn that the country’s Total installed power generation capacity is around 3600 and that Zambia’s power needs is around 2300 MW but that at the moment we are only producing a total of 1200 MW which leaves us with a power deficit of around 1100 MW.

There are however some inteventions that have been employed like the recall of about 160MW from exports,thre 105 MW ndola energy production and a few solar plants that are underway in construction.

What remains to be know is how far the water we have in these reservoir dams will go in as far as giving us more power is concerned because the water levels are futher dwindling.
What also remains to be know is how much in total are all these alternative sources of power that are being brought in board  and when are they coming onto the grid and further, it is yet to be established as to what is the true position of power exports because it looks like what Zesco is telling us is different from the stories we are getting about the quantities of our power exports.

Otherwise we have a dire situation in so far as the power situation is concerned and it looks like we may may in the dark for some time.

BINWELL MPUNDU
NKANA MP
UMWINA NKANA.