Category: Energy

ZESCO Limited and Konkola Copper Mines Plc (in liquidation) have sued the Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) in the Lusaka High Court seeking a declaration that the latter’s action to restrict power supply to KCM contravenes the law. Zesco and KCM are further seeking an order of injunction restraining the CEC by itself, its directors, officers or agents from interfering in the Time Sheet Agreement between the Plaintiffs through restricting KCM from receiving supply from Zesco, pending determination of the matter, among other claims. In a statement of claim filed in… Read More Here

Mining has been Zambia’s economic mainstay and CEC the engine that has unfailingly powered the wheels of mining. CEC accounts for between 45-50% of Zambia’s national energy consumption. Beyond its role on the Copperbelt, CEC is an indispensable member of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). It co-owns and operates, with DRC’s national utility, Société Nationale d’Electricite (SNEL), the transmission lines interconnecting the Zambia and DRC electric grids, and which form an integral part of the SAPP central transmission corridor. This is the only connection between DRC and Southern Africa,… Read More Here

Zambia’s government said on Wednesday it had no intention of taking over Copperbelt Energy Corp (CEC), after the company accused the government of expropriating its power lines by saying others must be allowed to use them if they paid.   Energy Minister Matthew Nkhuwa issued a statement, known as a statutory instrument, on Friday declaring the CEC power lines a “common carrier” and obliging it to transmit electricity on behalf of other players on agreed terms and conditions. CEC, formerly a state-owned firm before it was privatised in the 1990s, said… Read More Here

Energy minister Matthew Nkhuwa on May 29, 2020 issued Statutory Instrument No.57 of 2020, the electricity (common carrier) (declaration) regulations, 2020 just before CEC was about to cut power supply to Konkola Copper Mines.   “The transmission and distribution lines set out in this schedule are declared as a common carrier for the purposes of the Act and shall be used on the terms and conditions determined by the Energy Regulation Board,” reads the SI. “Schedule: 1. Transmission lines. All transmission lines operated by the Copperbelt Energy Corporation. 2. Distribution lines.… Read More Here

The Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc (CEC) has become aware of Statutory Instrument No. 57 of 2020 (SI 57) issued by the Minister of Energy, Honourable Mathew Nkhuwa, declaring all of CEC’s distribution and transmission lines as Common Carrier. This declaration came just hours before the expiry of CEC’s power supply agreement (PSA) with Konkola Copper Mines Plc (KCM), which took effect at midnight on 31 May 2020 and in the wider context of the failed negotiations for the renewal of the Bulk Supply Agreement (BSA) between CEC and ZESCO, which… Read More Here

Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corp (CEC) will stop supplying power to Vedanta’s local unit Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) from Monday, it said after talks on an extension to their supply agreement broke down over debt owed to CEC. Zambia’s Energy Minister Mathew Nhkuwa told Reuters that KCM would now receive its power directly from state-owned utility Zesco, which has previously sold electricity to CEC for onward supply to KCM. Nkhuwa said the bulk electricity supply agreement between Zesco and CEC, which expired on March 31, would not be renewed. The power… Read More Here

Hanson Sindowe is the last person you would expect to be one of Zambia’s richest; he grew up the son of a policeman in a family of farmers in the village of Kalomo, 120 kilometres north of Livingstone. It’s a place thousands of kilometres from where he made his fortune on power distribution along Zambia’s copper belt, the lifeblood of the country.  Sindowe is the engineer, who wanted to be a pilot, but ended up buying Zambia’s copper belt power distribution company, Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC,) in 2006 for $120… Read More Here

Vedanta Resources Ltd.’s Zambian entity in preliminary liquidation is struggling to keep the lights on after a power company has threatened to cut supply on a $ 132 million bill, according to court records. Zambia’s largest single electricity consumer, Konkola Copper Mines Plc, received an injunction from the High Court on May 13, Copperbelt Energy Corp. prevented it from containing its electricity. KCM denies the payment requested by CEC and says that electricity restrictions would cause irreparable damage to its facilities, according to an affidavit from the mining company.Vedanta Resources… Read More Here