Zambia has started receiving the 300 Megawatts power imported from South Africa’s ESKOM. Minister of Energy Mathew Nkhuwa has confirmed this to the the Zambian Business Times – ZBT saying that electricity started flowing into the country after midnight .
Zesco has however, not independently confirmed the commencement of electricity imports from South Africa. Nkhuwa said 27 million dollars has been paid to import power for only a period of one month. He further stated that US$20.5 million is the total cost of the imported power and US$6.5 million was for settlement of the arears. He said the importation of 300 Megawatts of power will help reduce the prevailing load shedding by two hours or more.
The Energy Minister explained that this is because five generating machines at the Kariba have completely been shut down leaving only one that is producing 180 Mega Watts to operate. He said the machines can be destroyed if they allowed to operate under the current low water levels at the Kariba Dam.
Nkhuwa assured Zambians that the normal supply of electricity will gradually improve for the month of December and January if rains stabilize. Zambia is currently experiencing a power deficit of about 872MW with load shedding of over 15 hours on a daily basis in most parts of Lusaka, which houses the biggest retail customer base.
