Power crisis: Minister banks on Kafue Gorge
THE country will not experience power challenges once the 150 megawatts Lower Kafue Gorge becomes operational in April next year, Minister of Energy Mathew Nkhuwa has said. The minister said the project would be huge relief to the country, power deficit would be a thing of the past. We are coming on board with Lower Kafue Gorge with the capacity of 150 megawatts, this will eventually cushion the power deficit, Mr Nkhuwa said. “With the Kafue Gorge Lower project coming in April 2020 the power challenges we are facing will come to an end. We are even confident that water resources will recover which will enhance electricity generation. “By April when the project will be commissioned the rains would have improved and we shall have enough to generate,” Mr Nkhuwa said. The country is experiencing power challenges forcing government to look to Eskom of South Africa to import 300 megawatts to improve generation. Recently Minister of Finance disclosed that US$27 million had been paid to Eskom to import 300 megawatts of electricity for a period of one month. In an interview yesterday, Mr Nkhuwa said once the Lower Kafue Gorge was operational with other projects being undertaken and already existing power infrastructures, electricity generation would improve significantly. He said the improvement of the electricity generation would eventually significantly revamp the economy of the country adding that electricity was the beacon of the economy, therefore, improvement of power generation was inevitable to save the economy. Mr Nkhuwa on Tuesday, in an interview, said government had no other alternative to import power from after the cancellation of the power import agreement with EDM of Mozambique because the African region had no power due to droughts.