WHY IS VICTOR MAPANI STILL ZESCO MD?

WHY IS VICTOR MAPANI STILL ZESCO MD?

By Antonio Mourinho Mwanza

1. Zambia has an installed electricity capacity of about 3,456 MW against a peak-demand of about 2,300 MW.

Practically, we have excess power supply of about 1,156 MW.

2. With these figures above, why then is Zambia experiencing crippling load shedding with people going for days without power?

Is it the Drought or it is a Leadership problem that is the real cause of the current load shedding?

HERE ARE THE FACTS

1. The meteorological department and the international weather bureau in 2022/23 repeatedly WARNED ZESCO that there will be a drought in the 2023/24 season.

Instead of rationing the water in view of the impending drought, ZESCO foolishly went ahead to sign uninterrupted power contracts to export electricity to foreign countries amidst a pending electricity shortage after being warned that there will be a drought.

2. Since ZESCO doesn’t have  Pumped Hydroelectric Storage capacity to store power, what ZESCO needed to do, in view of the impending drought was to turn off some of its machines and RATION the water so that we couldn’t run out of water when the drought finally kicked in.

But since ZESCO had already foolishly signed power export agreements with foreign countries, they couldn’t ration the water because they needed to produce more electricity to meet the power export obligations even when the water we had was not enough to last us beyond August.

3. Due to pressure to produce beyond our demand in a bid to export power as per contracts that ZESCO has signed, we have depleted our share of the water at the Kariba Dam, which is our largest source of hydropower.

This is exactly how we have found ourselves in this load shedding. It is not as a result of the drought per se but as a result of incompetence and foolishness; the failure to plan ahead and put in appropriate measures to mitigate the effects of the drought.

4. ZESCO knows so well that about 83% of all our power generation is hydro, about 9% is solar and the remaining is thermal and other sources so it is clearly unwise for ZESCO to sign export contracts and deplete the water when they know that that’s our major source of energy.

5. Is it really not mind boggling that amid this crippling  power crisis, ZESCO is still exporting power?

WHAT’S THE WAY FORWARD?

We need both Short-Term and Long-Term solutions:

SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS
1. Fire Victor Mapani and his entire Management Team at ZESCO.

2. Stop all power exports with immediate effect.

3. Declare Load-shedding a national disaster and mobilise resources to import more power. We need about 780 MW to end the current load shedding.

LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS
1. Diversify our power-mix and invest more in solar, thermal and other renewable sources of energy.

2. Invest in Pumped Hydroelectric Storage Systems.

3. Resolve the structural problems at ZESCO; remove political interference, wasteful spending, inefficiencies and improve transparency and accountability to ensure good corporate governance.