The Rural Electrification Authority – REA has announced that plans are underway to pilot the generation of power from the solar milling plants implementations this year as soon as COVID 19 situation stabilizes.
The Authority has partnered with Zambia Corporative Federation – ZCF to build power networks around the solar milling plants in rural areas which have been discovered to produce excess power over and above that which is needed for the current installed milling plants.
REA Corporate Affairs Manager Justine Mukosa told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an exclusive interview on April 06, 2020 that close to 1,600 milling plants under ZCF which use solar for power across the country have been earmarked for this project as the authority is currently doing scoping works and then later start piloting in Chongwe before scaling to all the milling plant sites.
In December 2019, an agreement between REA and ZCF valid for five years was signed were REA was to tap for electricity from the close to 1,600 solar milling plants ZCF had installed which generate up to 15kw of electricity per plant.
The installed milling plants only utilizes 7.5 kw, which therefore leaves 7.5kw unutilized, which translates to about 12 megawatts of unutilized electricity across the country. This agreement will enable REA to tap into this extra power resource to provide electricity to the communities where the solar milling plants are located, which are mostly in rural areas.
When asked how much the entire project will cost, Mukosa could not disclose the exact amount yet stating that the authority will only determine how much the project will cost once piloting begins and is completed this year.
“A lot of our projects are on hold because of the current situation in the country as we have also suspended works to avoid further spread of the virus, therefore once the situation gets back to normal we will resumes our works and suspended projects will begin running “ He added.
Meanwhile, REA is re-affirmed that its completed works at its mini- hydro power project in Mwinilunga district of North Western Province worth over US$8.6 million under the authority’s grid extension project for rural areas is just awaiting official commissioning.
According to the budget release report for March 2020 from the Ministry of Finance, about K22.5 million was allocated to electricity infrastructure development in rural areas though REA and the authority has confirmed that part of its allocation was used to complete projects such as the above that began in 2018.
Mukosa told ZBT that the mini – hydro project in Mwinilunga district was set to be officially commissioned early this year but this has since been pushed forward to a later date due to the COVID – 19 situation.
