ZAMBIA TO REDUCE ON POWER EXPORTS IN READINESS FOR EL NINO – INDUCED ELECTRICITY SHORTAGES – MAPANI
By Taonga Mitimingi
07/18/2023
(Bloomberg) — Zambia intends cutting back on some exports from next month and securing power from neighboring Mozambique in anticipation of electricity shortages stemming from the El Niño weather phenomenon, which tends to bring hotter, drier weather to parts of southern Africa and threatens to curb output from its hydropower plants.
“It is very worrying, I think we’ll definitely be affected,” Victor Mapani, the managing director of state electricity utility Zesco Ltd., said in an interview in Lusaka, the capital, last week. “Water levels in our reservoirs will definitely dwindle.”
Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, has 3,600 megawatts of installed power generation capacity, 86% of which comes from hydroelectric sources. Minimal electricity restrictions are foreseen within the southern African nation and usage curbs will mainly target mining and industrial customers that don’t pay their bills, Mapani said.
The bilateral agency that manages the Kariba hydropower dam that Zambia and neighboring Zimbabwe rely on for much of their electricity generation on Tuesday cut the allocation of water each country can use this year to power their turbines by 25%. Inflows into the world’s biggest man-made reservoir were lower than expected and its usable water reserves stand at has less than 31% of its capacity, the Zambezi River Authority said in a statement.
The country is looking to diversify its energy sources.
Zesco is pushing to commission 500 megawatts of solar power capacity over the next two years, encouraging investors to build wind farms and considering establishing a unit to produce green hydrogen for export, according to Mapani. The utility has also engaged Kenya Electricity Generating Co. to accelerate plans to produce geothermal electricity and sees output starting within two years, he said.
Zambia was subjected to rolling blackouts at the beginning of the year that lasted as long as 12 hours a day after water levels plunged at Kariba, the dam that it and Zimbabwe rely on for much of their power, curbing mining and manufacturing output. The International Monetary Fund has flagged the impact of poor rainfall on power generation as a key risk that could increase Zambia’s debt vulnerabilities.
(C) Bloomberg