Minister clarifies US$70m power debt claims
ZAMBIA owes Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM) US$53 million and not US$70 million dollars for electricity imports, Energy Minister Mathews Nkhuwa has clarified. Mr Nkhuwa however said Zambia stopped importing emergency power from Mozambique in January when the two-year contract ended.
Mr Nkhuwa said between 2014– 2016 Zambia experienced severe drought which led to low water levels in some dams and that led the country to experience power deficit of more than 1,000 megawatts. He said the power deficit led to Zesco implementing a stringent load shedding regime to preserve water in dams and to avoid a complete shutdown of power generating plants.
He said Government through ZESCO procured emergency power inputs to keep the economy running especially in the mining, small medium enterprises and agriculture.
He said ZESCO contracted EDM to supply 150 megawatts of power for a two-year period from 2016.
Mr Nkhuwa said this in Parliament yesterday during question for oral answer when UPND Mazabuka Member of Parliament Garry Nkombo wanted to find out why Electricidade de Mozambique had suspended power supply to ZESCO and how many megawatts the power company was importing.
“The power imports between the EDM and ZESCO expired this year in January and was not suspended as reported by some sections of the media, therefore ZESCO decided not to renew the contract because we still have sufficient water at Kariba North and Kafue Gorge power stations to generate enough electricity to meet the national demand following good rainfall in 2017/2018," Mr Nkhuwa said.