Zambia, where Namibia imports some of its electricity, has ordered electricity producers to cut exports by 100MW as a way to mitigate power cuts in that country.
Zambia is currently battling a power deficit due a drastic reduction in available water in the Kariba reservoir for electricity generation at Kariba North Bank Power Station, resulting in the introduction of a 12-hour load-shedding.
“The New Dawn Government has facilitated a reduction in the exports of electricity to other countries by 100MW to mitigate the impact of load shedding on our citizens. This reduction is broken down as 40MW cut from the off peak and standard exports by ZESCO and 60MW from the exports by the Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc (CEC).It is for this reason that we have acted to ask ZESCO and CEC to reduce their exports to other countries,” Zambia’s Energy Minister Peter Chibwe Kapala said on Friday.
ZESCO has contracts to supply power to Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo totalling 430MW.
Under the Namibia power export deal, ZESCO exports 180MW, of which the 80MW were added in April as part of N$8.5 billion (US$500 million) 10-year deal with NamPower.
However, the local power utility has exclusively told The Brief that Namibia will not be affected by any decisions that the neighbouring country will make with regards to power exports because of a “firm” contract for its supplies, which guarantees uninterrupted power from Zambia.
