Consumer Unity for Trust Society – CUTS has called on the power utility company, ZESCO to share its progress regarding the importation of electricity and identify a short-term solution to Zambia’s energy crisis.
CUTS has observed that many consumers, both residential and businesses have been struggling with the current load shedding hours adding that not only are consumers being burdened with extended periods of load shedding, but ZESCO is sometimes unable to keep to their load shedding schedules hence exacerbating the crisis.
Around mid October, ZESCO in a press statement released on 17 October indicated that load shedding was to increase for a period of 12 days country-wide due to the taking out of service of one generating unit at Maamba Collieries Limited Power Station due to a fault that developed on 15 October hence to mitigate the shortfall during the shutdown period, additional load management of up to three hours was implemented.
CUTS Coordinator Chenai Mukumba told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that the national power utility company ZESCO, should share its discussions on the importation of power to clear speculations that have risen from various stakeholders regarding the progress of the discussions with Eskom.
She said lack of clarity is causing uncertainty to the country’s business environment and is contributing to a lack of confidence on the part of the general population. “As these discussions take place, we wish to reiterate that the Energy Regulation Board – ERB needs to be as transparent and consultative as possible, particularly during discussions pertaining to the tariff hikes that may need to accompany the importation of electricity. Indeed, if the tariff hikes are too high and there is no change in the service provision, the hikes may be beyond the reach of those who need to use electricity.,” She said.
And ZESCO spokesperson Henry Kapata told ZBT in a telephone interview that the process of power importation is still going and will inform the public as soon as the process comes to a conclusion.
Zambia is currently facing an on-grid power deficit of over 750 MW due to low water levels at Kariba dam which is the key generator of electricity for the copper rich country.
Zambia is however in the process of importing 300MW from South Africa, a proposition which also came under question when ESKOM announced its own round of load shedding last week.
