North-Western Energy Corporation – NWEC Chief Executive Officer – CEO Andrew Kamanga has disclosed that the corporation is only distributing 10 MegaWatts (MW) out of its licensed 20 MW due to the load shedding that the country is experiencing in the last few years which has extended to its domestic customers and operations.
He said the corporation has since continued to prioritize the needs of its customers by introducing solar back up lighting to cover them during this period.He stated that the company continued to expand its customer base by connecting the new houses that are built in Kalumbila.
Kamanga told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an exclusive interview that the corporation has since written to Zambia’s Power Utility Company ZESCO to open up the power distribution sector to allow for more private sector participation as NWEC is only licensed to distribute up to 20MW.
He said currently the corporation has power distribution infrastructure in Solwezi, Lumwana and Kalumbila district and it is distributing to all mining townships with over 4,500 households currently connected and benefiting from its power supply.
“We are only licensed to distribute up to 20MW and currently we are just doing half of 20 which is 10MW and this is because the sector has not become friendly, it is for this reason that we have written to ZESCO to allow NWEC to actively participate and expand in the power distribution space,’” He added.
In Zambia, domestic and commercial customers have lost the 24/7 supply of electricity with load shedding having become a reality to most parts of the country. For the copper mining industry, this is however an exception as power supply has been prioritized and are receiving power to keep the copper anchored economy going.
ZESCO has blamed low water levels at its main power generation plant at Kariba Dam as the main cause of the continued power rationing. The low water levels have emanated from the recent droughts that Zambia experienced had experienced in 2017/2018 as over 80% of power is generated through hydro power plants.
Zambia has for the past few years been experiencing long hours of load shedding of up to 10 hours per day. This has frustrated most citizens especially after the major tariff hikes which were accepted to be necessary to end load shedding and allow for imports were local generation was inadequate.
Minister of Energy Mathew Nkhuwa recently stated that Zambia’s power deficit currently stands at 810MW and that the completion of the 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower would largely plug the gap. However, the completion date for phase one which had been scheduled for April 2020 has now been moved to October 2020 due to covid 19 travel restrictions which saw experts constructing the power plant unable to travel back to Zambia after their holidays January/February mostly in China.
