Zambia power utility warns of increased power cuts

• 4 years ago (2019-08-23)
• David Flin

Africa 306 Transmission 181

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Zesco, Zambia’s power utility, has said that there will be more power cuts over the next few days because of limitations in power generation capacity. Zesco has been rationing electricity on a four-hour basis since June this year due to reduced water levels in the country’s hydropower plants. Zesco announced in a statement that there will be increased load shedding due to limitations on power supply.

The power utility said that the emergency situation has been necessitated after a fault took out one of the units at the coal-fired Maamba Collieries Limited (MCL) plant. It said that while the unit is shutdown, output from the plant has been reduced from 267 MW to 133 MW. The statement said: “To mitigate the shortfall during the shutdown period, extended load management will be implemented in order to prevent over-generation beyond the recommended levels at Kafue Gorge and Kariba North Bank Power Stations.”