The Itezhi Tezhi hydropower project on the Kafue River in Itezhi Tezhi district in Central Province has started generating power after a successful trial production which began in November, 2015.
Newly appointed Itezhi Tezhi District Commissioner, Hendrix Kaimana, has confirmed to ZANIS after touring the state-of-the-art U$ 156 million facility in Itezhi Tezhi.
The project is developed by Itezhi Tezhi Power Corporation (ITPC), a 50-50 joint venture between ZESCO and TATA which started construction in 2012.
The power station comprises of two Kaplan turbines rated 60 MW each coupled with synchronous generator with a generation voltage of 11KV.
“The units are ready for commissioning by the end of this month,” Mr Kaimana said.
“As we are speaking now Unit One is already generating 30MW which is being transmitted to Lusaka via the newly-constructed 220KV/330 KV transmission line of about 280 km from Itezhi-Tezhi to Lusaka with a substation at Mumbwa.
Mr Kaimana expressed satisfaction at the workmanship and assured that Itezhi Tezhi will no longer be subjected to load shedding.
He thanked President Edgar Lungu for his commitment to ensuring that all major power projects are completed to reduce power outages.
And Engineer, Maliwa Mukelabai, told the District Commissioner that currently the company is only able to generate 30MW due to low water levels.
“Currently we are only generating 30MW from one unit which is 50 per cent. This is due to low water levels. When we have normal water levels we will be able to generate at full capacity of 60MW for each unit,” Mr Mukelabi said.
He informed the DC that Unit Two has been undergoing tests but that it will also be ready for commissioning by the end of this month.
Mr Mukelabai, who is a mechanical engineer, also told said the firm is working on a substation that will be supplying power to the district.
“Itezhi Tezhi district will be given 10MVA which is a major improvement from only 1.5 MVA which comes from Choma.
The plant, one among the major hydropower projects in the country, will raise its capacity to 120MW when water levels improve.
very good. at least the town of production should not have any load shedding. that will encourage investments in the town.
Sounds simple and cheap, there can be 2 such stations on Luapula river.
Why then is Livingstone town subjected to load shedding when it also has a power station just like Itezhi tezhi and Siavonga?
Now the upnd cadres will shut their mouths. I feel pity for HH cos by Aug there won’t be something to give him political milage.
@ mj banda, People have no food because of the high cost of living, no clean water, no medicines in hospitals, unemployment is high and all you think about is UPND. More than 90% of Zambians are now living on less that $1.00 per day and you think this will change anything. Get real UPND and HH will not suffer by not voting for them, its the poor people in compounds who are affected and if you think you are punishing HH/UPND by not voting for them, then you need your heard to be exarmined.
@ mj banda for how long has this project been in progress? Now that it has reached completion during PF tenure you want to allot its success to PF! No reasonable government should fail to uphold programs of national good and such should never be politicized. We’re both in a country where politics of different parties do not interfere with good projects for the country. Now that you have earned dual citizenship try to carry the progressive mentality to change political conduct in development projects
The Project ISN’T FROM LUNGU’s pocket but from Zedians who will pay for it – so HH can talk about Kariba as being the man to source finance & repair the PF mismanaged dam!!!
This is development indeed…..
Whilst they are yapping and condemning the PF Government, President Lungu is quietly but solidly working and developing mother Zambia.
Well done President Lungu and everyone at ZESCO and the contractors involved for yet another mammoth delivery.
Come 11 August 2016, one will collapse in opposition.
Construction started in 2012. Feasiblilty studies and contracts signed at least a year earlier.
Ati who?
I LIKE LUNGU NO BOASTING,HE IS WITH THE PIPO CALL HIM NAMES HE WILL REMAIN OUR PRESIDENT AFTER 2016 ELECTIONS
spoken like someone who doesn’t know what Zambians are going through now we understand you boss just FYI Things are tough here now my man prices of commodities sky rocketing people losing there Jobs,Business,Health etc. try to empathies.
We are also waiting 300MW any time soon from Maamba thermal plant which should have come on line with 150MW last December.
Ok this is good news for the start even if the power station has not reached full capacity of 120MW. But then this should tell us that there is something wrong somewhere in PF:why put US$400m of borrowed money to do roads in residential areas on the Copperbelt when we could have invested that same money in power generation either as thermal or hydro (e.g.on Kalungwishi,Lumangwe etc) and do away with power imports in next two years?? It is a good development but on the CB roads vs power generation,something should be done! We need to order our priorities!!
Zemia neighbour Chawa at work!
dont be quick to celebrate a maamba as it was delayed because of contractual problems caused by zesco the project would have been done by DEC now we wait till july
GOOD MOVE PF ,LETS HOPE THATS THE END OF LOADSHEDING FOR THE MENTIOND AREAS
Out of the way! Let them work!
We need to develop more power stations in the north were we’ve more rains, longer rainy season than in the south. With the changing weather pattern, pettiness aside, We won’t be crying of low water levels as much as we are doing. Great news for Itezhi Tezhi!
The north has actually numerous water Falls i.e natural heads of water that we should maximise for mini hydro power stations plus the large bodies of water endowed in the north- good plans should put to rest this irksome load shedding.
Comment:so when would this nightmare of loadsheding come to an end!, coz we cannot depend only on water level! can there be any solutions apart from water level?
These are MMD projects which PF wants to steal credit for. PF has not started a single power station project. Even with the load shedding they’ve failed to start new power generation stations. (Don’t tell me about that solar project, its a joke of a project. It can’t feed the mines)
They only know roads because they can get cuts from tender awards.
@ Maloza, whether it was done/started by MMD or PF it doesn’t matter. The project is for Zambians and it is meant to make their lives better. Why should it be about politics all the time?
#LunguMustGo
To state house….
This project was actually conceived under KK’ s watch but could not be constructed because we had more than enough electricity and we were, in fact, exporting excess electricity to Zimbabwe because at that time the Zimbabwe’s economy was doing much better than ours.
Did you guys know that 42% of all water in Southern Africa flows through Zambia…so hydro-power is not a problem (you could drop hundreds of 1MW units in rivers all over Zambia within a matter of weeks)…Zambia’s problem is the national grid…the real point about this story is not the hydro-plant itself…it is the transmission cable to Lusaka…that is the success story…and Zambia needs more power lines, lots of them. And who cares if it was KK, RB or Lungu…these projects take years to plan, commission and build…children not yet born will benefit from this project…think long-term.
5th Sept. 2011 News; “President Rupiah Banda has officially commissioned the construction works of the 250 million US dollars Itezhi tezhi Hydro Power station in Southern province.
The Project which will create over 450 direct jobs for the people of Itezhi tezhi will be implemented under the Public Private Partnership between ZESCO and Tata Africa”
Tamutasha