OFFICIAL STATEMENT
Fixing The Energy Crisis
The PF have left Zambians in the dark. As they now seek praise for reducing the hours of load shedding for the run up to elections, the weight of blame for the current energy crisis, and the resulting lost business and jobs, falls firmly on their shoulders.
The PF should have seen this energy crisis coming, they either took their eyes of the ball for a very long time, or they simply didn’t care, hoping the impacts wouldn’t be felt until after August 2016.
How could they have seen it coming? Simple. Firstly, as a country we had a supply deficit of 560MW even before the crisis hit, with demand growing by 200MW per year. It is simple maths to calculate that if new capacity does not meet the annual increase in demand, each year you are going to need more and more hours of load shedding.
Secondly, ZESCO was using more than its water allocation. In 2014 it went over by 22%, violating restrictions put in place by the Zambezi River Authority to avoid such crisis situations.
Thirdly, ZESCO had clearly fallen behind on maintenance. It is not rocket science to know that, as with a car, any machinery or infrastructure, if you do not keep up repair works then you will not travel as far as you were once able to and you may one day break down altogether. So it is with our energy infrastructure, where installed capacity has not been equal to generation because of the failure to maintain.
Addressing our energy shortfall is critical for the prospects of our nation, both in terms of the economy and in terms of social sectors such as education, healthcare and water and sanitation. It is very closely related to job creation. This is why Point 5 of our 10 Point Plan is to electrify Zambia.
In the energy sector the UPND is planning an action-oriented and forward-looking strategy to diversify the national sources of energy. This includes the use of renewables, and in particular solar energy projects that will be promoted by independent power producers.
It takes roughly six months to one year to construct and commission a 200MW solar energy plant at a cost of between US $240 million and US $360 million. Put this cost against the amount the PF has borrowed, not to mention wasted, and you’ll see this comes back to a question of priorities. Unfortunately, for many Zambians, and in particular our small business owners, they have not had the luxury of choice or the back-up option of using a generator. As such they have ended up out of business and out of work until such time as the PF wakes up.
Hakainde Hichilema
UPND President
This reads like an essay written by grade 12 drop out. Atase.
This is worse than a G12 dropout
It is merely more nonsense!!!
all he has done is highlight some problems and play blame on Lungu
where is the plan
Lungu is the one who launched the first ever solar power plant in Africa mind you, meanwhile for close to 40years we had no major investment in energy!
As we speak Lungu is already running a close to US$8bn energy programme that will see us start exporting power by 2019
for your information HH right now in Chuunga and Zingalume no load shedding! and in the few areas still having some challenges the defeceit has been cut to 2 hours per day!!
As of right now I have resigned from UPND. This is shallow, sorry to say
Because you are all looking for some sort of copy and paste from the details..sorry!
HH is surely an Under-5. PF are already doing what you are talking about…tell us something that is not being done by ECL. We are tired of this mediocrity
more nonsense!!!
all he has done is highlight some problems and play blame on Lungu
where is the plan
Lungu is the one who launched the first ever solar power plant in Africa mind you, meanwhile for close to 40years we had no major investment in energy!
As we speak Lungu is already running a close to US$8bn energy programme that will see us start exporting power by 2019
for your information HH right now in Chuunga and Zingalume no load shedding! and in the few areas still having some challenges the defeceit has been cut to 2 hours per day!! byoooooooooooo
Empty rhetoric with no sincerity in it.
What do you expect out of Mumbi Phiri, Frank Bwalya, Jean Kapata, Chishimba Kambwili, Brian Hapunda, Sunday or is it Monday Chanda and Chikwanda. This is A Team Lungu. But pa Zambia we are not serious. Look at the campaigns no message or encourage words to tell you how they are going to fix this or that problem.
Their only message is infintu ni Lungu or Umuntu ni Lungu. It is really shame for Zambia. This is the best group you can get ba PF sure mwa tusebanya. Mwaba ifi Colour ne fi loaf.
Very shallow from a person who wants to be President! Appreciate that Government has done something but you can enhance by ….etc
Lol. Just like that or he was misquoted?
Any one who has followed the PF government’s initiatives on how to boost power generation cannot help laughing at HH. Is he saying he is not aware of what the PF government is doing? Where I live load shedding is already over. I understand other neighborhoods in most parts of the country are undergoing similar experiences. Plans for solar energy projects are already far advanced and will complement thermal and hydro schemes to boost energy production to self – sufficiency and exportable levels. I am told the Russians even want to to bring nuclear energy production on board. And HH the genius is not aware of this!?
Ba HH kuwayayafwe. Please pay for the Past newspaper before family suffer. You declared a ka K73m of assets and that will leave a ka K5m for the cattle feed. Kikiki!
On a serious note, does HH know that there’s limitation on what can be loaded on the national electricity grid from solar? Engineers please help this clue less president of the under 5 party.
This can’t hs got nothing to tell people,all he is talkng ablt hs been put in place by Pf,wht is he going to talk ablt tht pf hsnt touched?
This underfive is really a flop. Amazingly he does not seem to learn. He has got it wrong again on every single point in his “statement”. I am not sure that he is worth my comments, people might not see the difference as they say. I just cant imagine a politician so dull. Today he is even acknowledging that the cause of the power deficit is low water levels when he refused this barely 12 months ago. Whichever theoretical academics that are advising HH are equally dull and there are so many of them with doctorates you will.not believe they are just a bunch of dull fo.ols. I bet they took the little points that they picked up from Zambezi river authority and considered themselves as experts. Come on guys dont embarrass yourselves, these things of water and power are too complex for…
Come on guys dont embarrass yourselves, these things of water and power are too complex for simpletons like you, leave them to people with brains. Stop misleading the poor underfive because everytime he parrots what you tell him he looks like absolute foolishness. And it loses him.thd votes everyday I have always said that HH has a propensity to shoot himself in the foot at critical times but I have always been shocked and surprised at his ever increasing levels of ignorance and instability. Now he is on.power, yesterday he was on peanut for my cousins in Chipata. You know what he told my cousins? He told told them.that he would come and build them a peanut butter factory.so that they can add value to their groundnuts. A friend who attended HHs rally was shocked. When I asked him why he…
….When I asked him why he was shocked he answered, “can you imagine that HH is in Chipata and does not know that a peanut butter factory has already been built in Chipata and will. start production.next week when the minister commisions it? Can you imagine how embarrassed I was as an economist?”
Thats HH for you, absolute ignorance he cannot even see it himself!
The only comfort is that HH will.never rule…because whenever he speaks he rates his own statements highly but the audience sees absolute nonse.nse instead. That is why whenever Edgar visits these places for campaigns th masses see an.honest lovable individial.who tells the truth. Agony yaba HH!
HH’s campaign slogan slogan of fixing things he does not understand is especially hilarious comedy PR excellence! Hollow message, does not resonate with the masses. Fix what, Imwe ba HH? Absolutely underfive material and yet he is taking to adults!
DAVID CAMERON just resigned why dont you copy and do the same. Rejected 5 times at thevpolls by zambians .no convention and clearly under 5 understanding of energy issues
I.found my friend crying the other day. When I asked why, he said that he was sick and tired of the embarrassment that HH brings to.his tribe. He is tonga and I assured him that the majority of people respect tonga people and that actually they thought that HH is a tonga reject. No one can believe that a normal person can proceed blindly on a trajectory of self destruction as HH does everyday. But that is the price you pay when you think that you are more clever than others, they stop advising you correctly.
H.E President Edgar Chagwa Lungu assigned IDC the task of rapid development of up to 600MW of Solar PV Power. The project will be undertaken and executed using the Scaling Solar Initiative developed by the World Bank Group. This is being done with technl assistance and advisory services to IDC from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Therefore, IDC intends to develop and install up to 100MW of Solar PV power generated from two plants to be located within the Lusaka South Multi-Facility Economic Zone (LS-MFEZ) on an area of approximately 120 ha in total. This constitutes Round 1 of the Zambia Scaling Solar Project.
Accepting mediocrity is the norm in Zambia. HH’s statement should be analysed in the context of priorities and a government doing nothing for such a long period. Is it short memories or no memories at all? You spend years and years in load-shedding mode and do not question it? In normal circumstances that should have translated into massive compensation payments for customers. Most of the load-shedding has been due to sheer incompetence, lack of foresight and planning. But in Zambia, it seems any adverse situation if left to exist long enough, becomes normal.
Some of you also only argue from a premise of being recipients of the crumbs falling from Lungu’s personal and henchmen’s opulent existence. We are doomed as a country when such pervasive selfishness, ignorance and myopia…
… continue unabated.
One wonders folks who comment here. A purported engineer doesn’t know that infrastructure maintenance is tied to the capacity if service delivery. Investment priority, of course, most that rush to criticize is because their priorities are tummy-based. Can you put counter arguments that specify your learned understanding of electricity or services delivery! Stop this F of calling names when someone puts economic point plans. If it was your team leader, you would go ahead and say “well planned and said”. Is it a problem of who said it for some to see logic? Just yesterday, your well qualified leader went talking about ku-pyana.., and saying nothing in economic planning, instead focusing on personality just the small vocal, “highly educated” and know it all bloggers on this space.
Under 5….boss
No substance.
A fool full of pride.
Good continue exposing your foolishness
so that Zambians get to know who you really are.