FIRE AS A FORM OF ENERGY

ACCORDING

to some reports these “Chinese units” were intended to operate as peaking units not to run much more than the planned three to four hours a day. He also explained that power generation from internal sources stood at 1,015MW, meanwhile the unsuppressed power demand had remained at an average of 1,850MW. The power imports had been stable at an average of 300MW, bringing the total generation supply to stand at 1,315MW although the country’s total installed capacity is about 2,592 MW.This meant that if all the power generation plants were operating at optimum, the projected peak demand of 1,850 MW would have been met. (Indeed this year, with more water in our reservoirs, the peak demand is being met and hence no load shedding.)

To mitigate the power deficit ZESCO was importing between 250MW to 402MW emergency power from suppliers such as ESKOM (South Africa), EDM (Mozambique) Aggreko (Independent Power Producer in Mozambique) and Kapower (Independent Power Producer in Mozam-bique).

The emergency power imported in 2015 came at considerable cost to the government. A burden made worse by the rapid depreciation of the kwacha in 2015. Imports from Aggreko cost ZESCO US cents (US c) 18.4 per Kwh, imports from Mozambique were priced at US c 7.6 per Kwh. How does ZESCO then sell at four US cents per Kwh?

According to the PF manifesto, in the next five years the PF government shall: • Accelerate and scale up public-private partnership investment in hydro power generation to raise the installed capacity in order to meet na-tional demand and generate surplus for export;

• Attain cost reflective tariffs by 2019, thereby promoting IPPs to invest in power generation. Additionally, to allow ZESCO to make a profit and recapitalise. • Promote investment in alternative energy sources such as thermal electricity generation from coal and nuclear reactors; • Promote investment in the development of renewable energy sources such as solar, bio-fuels and wind; • Accelerate the provision of electricity to rural and peri-urban households at subsidised rates; • Promote the development and use of other alternative fuels in households such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and ethanol gel fuel so as to re-duce dependency on wood fuel; • Promote transparent procurement of crude oil and petroleum products from such sources and on such terms as are consistent with the need to maintain steady and reliable supplies at minimum landed cost; • Rehabilitate and upgrade the national strategic storage facilities; • Rehabilitate and upgrade the TAZAMA pipeline infrastructure; • Standardise the price of petroleum products countrywide so as to remove distortions in the fuel cost;

• Review the tax regime on petroleum products; • Promote exploration for oil and gas; • Unbundle the electricity industry into (i) Generation (ii) Distribution and Customer Service to improve efficiency. Transmission will still re-main under the government’s jurisdiction; • Promote private sector involvement generation, particularly using renewable energy such as bio-fuel or small-scale hydro;

Has the PF Government met one of its manifesto goals of accelerating and scaling up of public-private partnership in hydro power generation to raise the installed capacity in order to meet national demand and generate surplus for export?

The Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Project has been on the drawing board as long as the Kafue Gorge Power Station has been in existence. At Ka-fue gorge the Kafue River drops by 600m. The UNIP government did not utilise the entire 600m of this drop or head because there would have been too much power at the time but decided to use only 400m LEAVING A BALANCE OF 200m TO BE USED AT A LATER DATE WHEN ADDI-TIONAL DEMAND WARRANTED IT. Unfortunately there was surplus energy for a long long time because the economy stagnated as is exemplified by the production of copper, from a high of 750,000 metric under private hands to a low of 250,000 metric tonnes under nationalisation. This project should have been implemented a long time ago when electricity demand started rising after privatisation of the mines and Zambia would never have experienced the severe loading shedding she experienced because in a cascade arrangement of power stations water after generating power at Itezhi-tezhi Dam cascades to Kafue Gorge Upper where it also generates power and finally it cascades to Kafue Gorge Lower where it again generates power thereby minimising the effects of water and effectively using the same water three times to generate electricity. As the situation stands now the water goes to the ocean after generating power at Kafue Gorge Power Station when it could be used again.

It is, therefore, gratifying to see the PF Government, in keeping with the theme of my paper of how various governments have handled the energy sec-tor, facilitate the construction of Zambia’s third largest hydro-electric plant in Chikankata district, Southern Province.

The project will add 750 Megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid. The power plant called Kafue Gorge Lower is being built by a Chinese company, Sino-Hydro Corporation, at a cost of over US$2 billion. About 15 percent of the work has already been done. The project is being funded by China Export and Import Bank (China EXIM) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Government is providing the necessary guar-antees for the loans that Zesco requires for the project. TThe current projections indicate that growth in demand will increase between 150 MW and 200 MW per annum. The peak demand for electricity in the country is likely to be 3,000 MW by 2021 and is expected to increase to over 3,525 MW in 2030.As at 2016, Zambia’s installed capacity stood at 2,742 MW, of which 97 percent was from hydro and three percent from other sources. President Lungu-flanked by Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming-said the Kafue Gorge Lower is one of the many interventions his administration has put in place to end power deficits that have adversely affected the country.

The 120MW Itezhi

Tezhi power station was commissioned by President Lungu in 2016. It was one of the short-term measures to mitigate the power shortage. The occasion marked a positive step in ensuring reliability and quality in power supply in the country, particularly Central Province, President Lungu said at a ceremony to commission the project. The dam itself is a legacy of former President Kenneth Kaunda, and his name still gets mentioned with admiration in this small town, which lies on the fringes of Central Province.

LUNZUA Power Authority will invest US$850 million on the establishment of a hydro- power station between the Lumangwe and Kundabwika falls in Northern Province, which will have capacity to generate 247 megawatts of electricity. The Zambia Development Agency signed an investment pro-tection and promotion agreement (IPPA) worth over US$1 billion with EMCO Energy Zambia Limited for the construction of a 340 Megawatts thermal power plant in Sinazongwe district in December, 2017. In 2016, President Edgar Lungu commissioned the 300MW of power at Maamba Collieries Limited and is connected to the national grid through ZESCO Limited.

Other energy generating projects include the upgrading of the following:

(a) Chishimba Falls small- hydro power plant from 6 megawatts to 14.8 megawatts;

(b) Musonda Falls small-hydro power plant from 5 megawatts to 10 megawatts; and

(c) Lusiwasi mini-hydro power plant from 12 megawatts to 101 megawatts.

The Lunzua small hydro was upgraded from 750KW to 14.8MW and is up and running.

With these power projects completed or to be completed in a few years time surely the Patriotic Front is walking the walk.

Conclusion

Before the Europeans came to Africa there was no energy crisis.

The Africans had transport. They walked which required no external energy. Fire was the main form of energy they relied upon.

There was plentiful supply of firewood in the forests. Fire brought light into their huts. With the aid of fire, men could build furnaces into which they put iron or a variety of other substances, mixed with charcoal. Africans made their own tools. Thanks to fire, they were able to manufacture files, saws, axes, hammer, anvils, tongs and deadly weapons. They satisfied their own manpower-intensive modes of pro-duction, which did not require energy, It was when Europeans came to Africa that energy became an issue because they relied on machinery from the US, Canada, and Europe for transport, mining, and agriculture. These machines demanded the necessity of new, larger-scale sources of energy than previously envisaged, both in human and fuel form by Africans.

There had never been an energy crisis in Northern Rhodesia and Zambia until in the late 2000s when the MMD was in government and PF inherit-ed the problem. The coal from Wankie has been the backbone of the energy sector for the Katanga Province and the two Rhodesias. When the copper mines started expanding in the 1950s because of rising copper prices after the end of the Second World it was realised well before the energy crisis be-came a reality that the single track railway from Wankie to the Copperbelt would not transport sufficient coal to meet the energy demand on the Cop-perbelt. It was therefore decided to construct the Kariba Hydroelectric Power (HEP) to meet mainly the increased power demand on the Copperbelt.

The UNIP government can be blamed for many things but ENERGY IS NOT ONE OF THEM. This is why even now when President Lungu com-missioned the 120MW Itezhitezhi Power Station local residents remembered the UNIP government’s input. The MMD ruled Zambia from 1991 to 2011. It only added 120 MW at Kariba North Bank Power Station and 90 MW at Kafue Gorge Power through the repowering of the generating plants bringing the total generating capacity attributed to it to 220MW. This project took too long to complete from 1999 to July 2008. Why the power rehabilitation works took so long, longer than the construction of a greenfield project of a new power station during a period when the country was experiencing power deficit is a mystery to me.

So far the PF appears to be walking the walk on energy as I have already shown under its section.

Ronald Lwamba has worked as a Town Engineer for the then Municipal Council of Livingstone and Zesco, initially as a Resident Engineer for Itezhi-tezhi rising to the post of Senior Manager, Civil Engineering where, among other things, he was in charge of the preparation of feasibility studies for hy-dropower projects. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree (Civil) from the University of Zambia (1974), Post Graduate Diplomas in Water Re-sources Development (University of Roorkee, India) and Hydropower Development (University of Trondheim, Norway) and a Master of Engineering in Water Resources Development (University of Roorkee, India). Email: rbclwamba@ gmail.com