President Edgar Lungu has assured the nation that load shedding will be a thing of the past once he commissions the Kafue Gorge Lower power station which he says will produce 750 megawatts.
President Lungu says the current electricity deficit is 810 megawatts adding that the Kafue Gorge Lower power station, and other hydro-power stations that are coming into being, including solar power stations, will certainly wipe out this power deficit.
Speaking when he officially opened the fifth session of the twelfth National Assembly, the Head of State further assured the nation that the government has invested enough in electricity generation to turn the tide around.
“Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank our people for the understanding and the resilience they have shown during this difficult period. Government continues to recognize the importance of the energy sector in facilitating social and economic activities across different sectors,” he said.
“In 2016, we undertook to increase the country’s electricity generation capacity and access to electricity. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to report that the electricity generation capacity increased from 2,800 megawatts in 2016 to 3000 megawatts in 2020. This was a result of an addition of 160 megawatts to the existing capacity from hydro, thermal, and solar energy sources.”
The President disclosed that the additional sources were from the Ndola energy power plant upgrade, the Musonda Falls power station upgrades, and the Bangweulu, Ngonye and Copperbelt Energy Corporation solar plants.
“Mr. Speaker, while the electricity generation capacity has increased, the actual electricity generation has been fluctuating due to drought that has affected most of the hydropower stations, ” he said before adding that this was happening at the time when the demand for electricity has been steadily increasing.
“Mr Speaker, to address this rising demand, I am happy to report that an additional 750 megawatts of electricity is expected to come on board by the end of the year after the completion of the Kafue Gorge lower power station and the Chunga solar power project in Kafue National Park,” the President said.
“The coming on board of the Kafue Gorge lower power station will mark a major milestone in electricity generation in our country since the construction of the Kariba and Kafue Gorge power stations many years ago.”
How many times have we head such
Mr. President, your works are very visible in what you have done to develop this country. Forget the negative narrative from abana ba ndoshi but don’t overlook it. Trouble is you don’t have a media team that explains your works.
Bwana not even your wife believes what you say
Apart from KK, Sata and ECL, THE other presidents { FTJ, Mwanawasa, RB} did nothing to add to the National power grid while the population and demand did not stand still.
Thanks. The incoming President will commission them on your behalf. Thanks for the attempt to work. Sort out the kwacha to the dollar before you exit, it is your making
@Gamito, the incoming president has been incoming for 14 years. He has three ghosts that he needs to get rid of in order to enter State House. The Privatization Ghost, Tribalism Ghost and the Freemasonry. The three demons are too big to enter State house.
Ah my boss and mentor has swagger. That was a great opening. A few laughs here and there. Very charismatic one ECL. We trust in your leadership and yes we are certain load shedding will be history under pf. Now time to enjoy a drink after a busy day prepping for parliament. Cheers
Don’t tell me about a future that’s present only in your head. My future still looks dark because of poor leadership.
I don’t want loadshedding NOW! Any working government would have sorted out this problem by now if not yesterday but because Lungu is a kawayawaya president we are still tackling loadshedding despite the drought having ended.
First natumone ichikopo apa ba Kaizar Zulu. My statement above is in the first person singular so why ask me to speak for myself? Comprehension mwafeluka ba wishi. The whole Zambia’s present is dark with loadshedding, the heaviest loadshedding in SADC. Its the darkest country in Southern Africa at present. The fact that the drought is over and loadshedding has continued shows everyone there is a big underlying problem in Z. And the future is certainly dark unless for bootlicking PF members like you who know how to reap from people’s suffering-Pure vultures I must say. Social Science mwafeluka bawishi. Ndundepo nafimbi? Awe ichikopo niwe
Polytricks speak for yourself. If your future is dark that is your own making. It’s not our fault your brain is dark and dull. Ulichikopo fye
we should have had a dog as president rather than this 1doit we have, a dog thinks better than this m0ron of a w@nker
Gamito…keep on dreaming. We don’t criminals of privatization, free.mason ama sata.nist no.
Lungu you are a failure
it is just wrong to call Ba Matibini as Mr. Speaker.
Excellent! No more load shedding, just like all FISP inputs are going to be on time.
Now where can I get more Kool-Aid?
Loading shedding will be a thing of the past under Lungu? We are waiting for the incoming fresh and methodical president. Not under this incompetent fake of a president. Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu is the most imbecilic individual to have faked his way into the presidency. So much disorder and chaos in his thinking. Every decision is devoid of careful analysis and without understanding broader consequences. Lungu’s presidency is riddled with confusion and unforgivable incompetence. The PF must be removed to save our country from this chipantepante virus of state management. He needs to be voted out even earlier than August 2021. A total scatterbrain Lungu is!
We are loadshedding as you speak….and its the present going into the future…..
Not sure if there’s anyone who still buys this v0mit being spewed out by this corrupt dictator thief. This guy and his minions spent billions of money to import electricity from Mozambique and South Africa promising to end load shedding (anyone remember that?). That was many years ago but fast forward today, load shedding is still happening… poor leadership, incompetence, corrupt, thief all in one person. In other progressive countries, they would have kicked him out by force through protests. Not this stone-age primitive of a country we call Zambia.
Kci get your facts right. This kafue lower gorge lungu is boasting about was Mwanawasa / RB project. Sata found the whole contract signed & sealed. And he cancelled it claiming it was too expensive. 2 / 3 years down the line he signed the same contract with a $150million on top of the old price he had claimed was expensive. Check these things. Pf has just take over lots of mmd projects. All they did was add they commision on top.
Ba Bongoz: why didn’t Mwanawasa put it into practice?? Zambian mothers were giving birth on wet floors at uth while Mwanawasa boasted of boosting foreign reserves at BOZ. Let’s call a spade a spade, MMD knew about the looming power deficit and chose to prioritize foreign investment. PF have a better social economic policy, chapwa!!
KAPONYA Lungu with unfounded assurance often misunderstand economic development within Zambia because he is constantly pretending to care or trying to please people to take their toll on FAKE promises.
Lungu with unfounded assurance often misunderstand economic development within Zambia because he is constantly pretending to care or trying to please people to take their toll on FAKE promises.
THE PRESIDENT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CAUTIOUS ON THIS ONE. YOU CANNOT BE SURE CONCERNING POWER GENERATION. THE CONSUMPTION ALSO CONTINUED GOING UP. THERE IS ALSO A GENERAL SHORTAGE OF POWER GLOBALLY AND IN THE SUBREGION. SO YOU HAVE TO BE CAUTIOUS WHEN MAKING SUCH A PRONOUNCEMENT. AND WE HAVE HEARD SUCH PRONOUNCEMENTS BEFORE BY YOUR MINISTERS SIR.
Things are not easy under this economy but u gave us hope yesterday
No more loadshedding by the end of the year?!!!!! Well, December is just around the corner. We shall wait and see. But my take is that all these are lies. If loadshedding will continue after December, for get about my vote and that of my big family.
No more loadshedding by the end of the year?!!!!! Well, December is just around the corner. We shall wait and see. But my take is that all these are lies. If loadshedding will continue after December, for get about my vote and that of my big family. Let me mark this on my calendar.
Mr. President, it is good that Kafue Lower Hydro will be commissioned before the end of the year. I thank you for that development. But, we need more power than what we have invested. For solar, if the total rated capacity is 1000 MW, it means that the power that can be delivered to customer can be range from 20% to 40% of 1000 MW. Also take into consideration the number of people being connected to the grid everyday.
Ma proud of you Mr President. Lusaka has changed for the good. We may have trouble with the Kwacha but its a phase we can deal with. Will vote for u 2021.
To be fair, pf government has made serious progress on power generation. I think the challenge has been food production is decreasing with an increasing population. Just think of how many apples we consume daily – all imported. The fact that we have to eat everyday, mostly imported staff, is one of the reasons. The agriculture policies have been so poor that government has consistently concentrated on FISP whose marginal effect is close to zero. In a drought situation construction of a dam is more effective than giving bags of fertilizer. I know of farmers that got seed and 4 bags fertilizer but harvested 100 kg maize. There are several gaps that has now cost the pf its presidency.
HOPE AND HELP on the way
can’t wait for the HAPPY HOUR, after casting my vote on 11 August 2021.
I will judge you on energy only when loadshedding actually comes to an end. I believe when I see. On this, I act as doubting Thomas. Kano natungamo akakondo ba Sir.
That said, the energy crisis can not be blamed on your Government. Previous Governments are part to blame.
Good to see that you’re speaking positively about it but let’s get it done fastele fastele. Walk the talk
Its probably too late for such promises to have a favorable impact on PF’s Electoral chances in August 2021. People have already made their minds. They want a Change of Govt in 2021. If u look at the huge crowds welcoming HH in Luapula yesterday then u know that McMillan’s wind of change is blowing across Zambia. PF’s reliance on Election Rigging alone will fail. People are simply Angry and Hungry for Change. What remains for HH and the Opposition is how to protect the Vote. Time will tell.
Trying to fool us …as if loadshedding started in the previous government?? We can remember..how it started and all the stories we head about the deficit of electricity in the country
…we had plenty water but you said there was not enough rain….we remember how h, Zulu the zesco director was lying about the hydro power breakdowns…..fact of the matter Mr President you came into power when there was no loadshedding…..and 2 years down the line it started and kept increasing despite the cry of your citizens to invest in solar plants.. this is 2020 you are planning to start opening the power plants not just to let us see the good in you..but to campaign for it…..we do see your development with the over borrowed money..no one would love to sell off their country like you have done…
Loadshedding will be history. The only thing is this history keeps repeating itself towards every general election. We hope history will be put to rest this time around. The only thing missing is acknowledgement of the fact that MMD started the Kafue Hydro project, cancelled by Sata, then resigned. If the project was allowed to run it’s course from the start, we would not have been in this loadshedding mess! It’s therefore disingenuous for PF to want to claim all the glory for a project they messed up from the beginning. Self praise stinks!
Loadshedding will be history. The only thing is this history keeps repeating itself towards every general election. We hope history will be put to rest this time around. The only thing missing is acknowledgement of the fact that MMD started the Kafue Hydro project, cancelled by Sata, then resigned. If the project was allowed to run it’s course from the start, we would not have been in this loadshedding mess! It’s therefore disingenuous for PF to want to claim all the glory for a project they messed up from the beginning. Self praise stinks!!!
“If a bird perches on a tree for too long it invites stones” Prof Lumumba
Takapite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Load Shedding came to stay,any promises are b..l…t
Kariba Dam at 33% today so the water level drops 2 cm daily , therefore by December the water level will be below the intake pipe for the turbine therefore Zambians biggest power operation will cease, where will the power come from to cover the deficit?
Nobody is talking about the nuclear power station anymore. Zambian amnesia at it’s best. How much money did they promise with that project? I have said it and will say it again. Make load shedding a crime which could send power utility bosses to prison then we can belive that you mean business. As for now, we know power will be on until after elections. Infact brace yourselves if the loading shedding party is allowed back in.
We can have power but if it is expensive, then it is useless.
He is putting all his eggs in one basket this moron….it just takes one drought and back again. 12 months ago it was the same lies by the old hen Bo Inonge
Everything is possible next year is election. Ala tamwakapite!
This is good news. Let’s also check the possibility of a nuclear reactor .. we have this we forget about load shedding from the next 100years… pf will win but not with 56% . It will be around 52%. Last election the difference was about 100,000 votes
Don’t fix something that is not broken. You found all power generation system intact and working and producing enough power which you even started exporting to deficit neighbouring countries. Your greediness trying to make more money from power exports forced you to start tempering and retrofitting critical components on the working system without carrying out any feasibility studies. You went bang using Chinese equipment and engineers on a British made system. The rest is history! You started load shedding because of lack of vision. You can’t solve a problem without acknowledging it first. Lies can never solutions. If lies take central stage as a means of governance, no matter how tolerant and patient people reach a point where the lose trust in the leadership. That’s where we are…
In addition instead of staying at state house to find solutions to the many problems he is busy week in week out on campaigns and causing bye elections which are a drain on national coufers. What benefit is bye elections and how does the nation benefit from them. Each and every week he goes out on these 3-5 day tours he goes with a contingent of ministers, civil servants, party officials and cadres who have to be paid allowances and have to fed. How much fuel does the presidential plane take converted into $ value. Can Zambia afford to keep this plain in the air every week? Fellow Zambians, calling a spade a spade. We can not afford this extravagant spending on a single person who wants to play around when every citizen wants a job. Let us retire Mr Lungu so that he can go and play. We…
its a good thing to add capacity to Zambia’s installed MW that is a good achievement but it will be better even if the 750 MW will result in jobs in the energy sector and derived We want to see what additional jobs beyond the current establishments in the current utilities of less that 10000 The energy sector is an opportunity to create jobs We HAVE segmented sectors like generation itself transmission distribution storage efficiency financial hr projects transport supplies banking etc The agenda to create jobs and focusing on that will complements these good infrastructure projects
Well done PF on the bridging the energy deficit. On Energy I cannot blame the PF for the current crisis which was caused by the MMD. 20 wasted years. Nothing to sonta at. The PF has performed beyond expectations in infrastructure development which we can point at. What was the point of Mr Mwanawasa keeping $7 billion in reserves when the nation did not have sufficient hospitals, schools, dilapidated roads etc. Its nonsense to state that these were MMD plans when they did nothing apart from putting those tall security lights at markets and painting walls at hospitals.
The energy transition requires significant levels of investment, with material shifts in the pattern of that investment across different energy source There is a strong link between access to energy and economic well-being and prosperity. The importance of energy access is embodied in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 which seeks to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.
One measure monitored by SDG 7 is global access to electricity, where the number of people without access is estimated to have decreased from 1.2 billion in 2010 to 790 million in 2018*.
Economic prosperity and development depend not just on the ability to access electricity, but also on the quantity and quality of the electricity provisio