POOR RAINS SIGNAL POWER DEFICIT, LOAD SHEDDING - ENERGY EXPERT

POOR rains being experienced this season could plunge the country into a serious power deficit, an energy expert, Victor Hazemba, has warned.

Mr Hazemba said the government should not wait for things to go to the worst but instead act immediately and start preparations to avert any possible load shedding in the country.

There was a danger, he said, that the country could plunge into one of the worst electricity power crises following poor rains being experienced in the southern and western circuit, the major water flow contributor to the Kariba Dam.

During the worst power crisis under PF, Zambia imported power from ships generating power off the coast of Mozambique.

Kariba Dam is the country’s largest hydroelectricity power generation scheme, contributing 1, 080 megawatts of power to the national grid at full capacity.

He said while the country’s demand for power has been steadily growing at an average rate of over 10 megawatts per year, Zambia has not diversified much in the energy sector but instead continue depending on hydro.

Mr Hazemba said the current infrastructure development in the country has pushed the demand for electricity, and therefore there is need for the government to promote other sources of energy such as solar and coal power energy generation to supplement hydro.

He warned that failure to act now will not only in the near future result in a power deficit but also slow down the economic gains the country has been recording.

Mr Hazemba also asked the new dawn administration to state its position on the 2, 400 megawatts Batoka Gorge hydroelectricity project, expected to gobble US$5 billion.

He said since UPND was ushered into power last year, Government has not mentioned how it intends to go about the project to be done jointly with Zimbabwe.

Once completed, the Batoka Gorge, will become the third largest hydropower plant in Africa.