Foot your bills, Zesco told

ZESCO should clear outstanding debts owed to the Maamba Collieries (MCL) so the company can maintain efficient operations at its 300 MW coal-fired power plant.

MCL chief executive officer, Rear Shankar said due to the debt by Zesco, the company had been unable to manage a robust maintenance Programme at its modern eco-friendly thermal power plant.

Mr Shankar said the shortfall in cash flow had resulted in the company not be able to sustain quality proactive maintenance to its 300mw facility which was contributing significantly to the energy balance of the country.

He said one of the two units at the plant was forced to shut down on October 17, 2019 owing to a technical fault and required extensive consultations with the equipment supplier.

In a statement, he said this also caused the recent forced shutdown of one of its two generation units, halving its power supply to the national grid to 130MW.

He said the power plant required intensive regular maintenance involving high expenditure for spares, support services from the equipment manufacturers and other maintenance activities.

“Due to a continued shortfall in monthly payments of its power bills by Zesco, MCL has not been able to keep up a robust maintenance programme at its modern eco-friendly thermal power plant - which has been contributing significantly to the energy balance of the country,” he said.

Mr Shankar said since it starting supplying power in August 2016, there had been a continuous shortfall in monthly payments received from Zesco against MCL’s power bills.

He said without payments from Zesco the sole source of revenue, the company had insufficient funds to pay for costly spare parts and maintenance and the project dues to the principal equipment supplier whose expertise the company depend on.

The company could not disclosed the amount of funds owed, but that the payment shortfall had left it with inadequate cash to conduct operations and maintenance activities.

“Maamba Collieries considers the emerging situation as being largely attributable to non-receipt of full payments from Zesco.