ZESCO TO COMMENCE ROTATIONAL LOAD-SHEDDING EXERCISE TOMMOROW
By Michael Kaluba
ZESCO Limited has announced a rotational load-shedding exercise commencing tomorrow Tuesday, 3rd January 2023 as a result of a planned generator outage at Maamba Coal Thermal Power Plant for routine maintenance and the critical low water levels at the Kariba reservoir.
According to a statement issued by the ZESCO Corporate Affairs department, as at 31st December 2022, the water level at Kariba Dam was at 475.60 meters above sea level, a situation that has necessitated the reduction of generation at the 1080megawatts power station facility to below 400megawatts.
The power utility says this has affected its ability to meet the system load/customer power demand, especially during morning and evening peak demand periods.
The statement explains that this inability to meet the power demand will further be compounded by the planned outage of a 150megawatts generator at Maamba collieries limited power plant for routine annual maintenance scheduled to take place from 4th to 20th January 2023.
ZESCO says to mitigate the effects of load-shedding, the company will endeavor to optimize electricity generation at all other power generating stations to maintain the integrity and safety of the power system while continuously notifying customers and the public on the power availability status.
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