ZAMBIA ELECTRICITY SUPPLY CORPORATION TO COMMENCE LOAD SHEDDING AS WATER LEVELS IN KARIBA RESERVOIR HIT CRITICALLY LOW
ZESCO has experienced a drastic reduction in available water for electricity generation at Kariba North Bank Power Station due to critically reduced water levels in the Kariba reservoir.
As at 31 December 2022, the water level was at 475.60 meters above sea level, a situation that has necessitated the reduction of generation at the 1080MW Power Station facility to below 400MW, and thereby affecting the ability to meet the system load/customer power demand, especially during morning and evening peak demand periods.
This inability to meet the power demand will further be compounded by the planned
outage of a 150MW generator at Maamba Collieries Limited Power Plant for routine
annual maintenance scheduled to take place from the 4th to the20thofJanuary 2023.
The generator outage at Maamba Coal Thermal Power Plant coupled with the critical
low water level at Kariba reservoir will lead to ZESCO carrying out a rotational Load
Shedding exercise which will now commence on Tuesday, 3rd January 2023.
To mitigate the effects of Load Shedding, ZESCO will endeavour to optimize electricity
generation at all other power generating stations to the extent that the integrity and
safety of the power system is safeguarded.
ZESCO will continuously notify its customers and the public on the power availability
status through various electronic and print media houses.
Customers are encouraged to look out for Load Shedding schedules in the press and
the company website www.zesco.co.zm once published.
As a safety precaution, customers are advised to treat all power supply lines to be
live, as power may be restored before the scheduled time.
