Lunsemfwa Hydro Power company – LHPC, an Independent Power Producer – IPP has disclosed that the non –availability of its hydro power plant and the delay in resuming full operations and power production is because the company is owed over US$50 million by ZESCO.
Energy Minister Matthew Nkuwa had earlier announced at a media briefing last week that during the period 1st May to 15th June 2020, the average generation of electricity in the country was 1,780MW which comprised 1,379MW from ZESCO and 401MW from independent Power Producers – IPPs.
He said the reduction in the IPPs contribution was due to non-availability of Heavy Fuel Oil from Ndola Energy Limited and non – availability of Lunsemfwa Hydro Power Plant, he however did not give details on why these IPP were not available to contribute full production needed to end load shedding especially for domestic consumers.
But a check by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT indicates that Lunsemfwa hydro power plant has the capacity of producing up to 56MW. However, its currently producing only 10MW due to what they have confirmed is the debt owed by ZESCO and lack of water in their reservoir.
Lunsemfwa hydro Chief Technical Officer – CTO Justine Loongo disclosed to ZBT in an exclusive interview on June 23, 2020, that ZESCO has since 2017 owned the company over $50 million and that even after restructuring the payment plan, ZESCO has only paid a minimal amount of about 20% during the first 3 months of the year.
He added that the company fully resumed its full operations in April but that its only producing the requested 10MW by ZESCO from the over 40MW that its capable of producing.
“ZESCO owes us a lot of money, more than US$50 million which they haven’t been paying since 2017 and it’s only this year that they have made an attempt to pay but it’s very slow, that’s why we have held up on our power production because effectively, our plant can deliver 40MW up to the next four months,” He said.
“But again even after ZESCO requested to give them 10MW, the company also wants to renegotiate the tariff for the 10MW which is further challenging their financial operations and you may find that other IPPs have similar issues with ZESCO,” He added.
Loongo said the company has since failed to execute many of their projects due to hindrances from ZESCO, hence has called on the company to speed up the process of payment and has also called on the Water Resources Management Authority – WARMA to carefully manage its water permits as farmers are harvesting water from their reservoirs at Lunsemfwa catchment hence making it impossible to get full water flows.
Zesco has continued to implement power rationing and blamed this on low water levels at its main power plant at Kariba dam, but the revelation by Lunsenfwa hydro that they can produce and contribute about 52MW and are currently only being requested to produce 10MW casts doubts on the reasons behind the current loan shedding mostly for domestic consumers.
LHPC currently owns two hydropower plants, that is Mulungushi Power Station and Lunsemfwa Power Station, with a combined generation capacity of 56 MW. Lunsemfwa power station comprises a reservoir, a canal and penstocks to a surface powerhouse.
The power station was constructed in 1945 with two 6 MW units. The power plant was operated as a run-of-river scheme until 1958 when the Mita Hills dam was built. A third 6 MW unit was installed in 1961. With the fourth unit of 6 MW installed in 2012.
