State power utility ZESCO says load shedding has increased after two generators at Maamba Collieries Thermal Plant tripped out of service on Tuesday.
ZESCO Senior Manager-Marketing and Public Relations Bessie Banda said the firm has discontinued lifting power from Maamba which began on November 12th 2016 after the two generators supporting its 220KV line from Muzuma and Kafue town tripped out of service yesterday due to a technical fault.
Ms Banda said at the time of the incident, ZECO was importing 200 Megawatts of power from Maamba into the grid.
She said the two machines are out and the that ZESCI is currently not receiving power from Maamba.
Ms. Banda said ZESCO will continue with the increased load shedding until such a time that the transmission line is resynchronised into the grid and dispatch of 270 Megawatts resumes.
“However, we have been assured that the plant will be resynchronised into the grid in the next few days and our customers will be updated accordingly,” Ms. Banda said.
This is the FAILURE OF THE WORST KIND,MISMANAGING THE POWER SECTOR!! Some of us thought after being with power shortages for more than a year, ZESCO had developed WAYS TO MEET UNEXPECTED SHORTFALLS SUCH AS THIS ONE! ESKOM has SOME EXCESS POWER and we are in SOUTHERN AFRICA POWER POOL(SAPP),so why not import from there instead of conditioning us to stay with persistent power shortages??
This is the result of having an incompetent bunch of PF thieves and looters in charge of the country.
They are destroying the economy and are so preoccupied busy enriching themselves from the TEN BILLION DOLLARS they have borrowed they are not even aware of the damage they have done to Zambia.
In any other country there would be mass protests and street demonstrations over such gross mismanagement and incompetence, and a call for those in charge to RESIGN! But Zambians are very aware we are now in a DICTATORSHIP and any protest will be treated like the Police treated Mapenzi during campaigns. Lungus priority is not development, but buying new armoured cars with machine guns!
We have load shedding now because Kafue Lower Gorge was CANCELLED by PF as soon as they came into power,…
@1.1 Dokotor, who CAN EVEN disagree with you? THESE PF GUYS ARE INCUBATING AN UPRISING!!
Expecting good news from PF Zesco is like wishing for a pig to lay an egg. It just will not happen. Under PF Zambia is now a reverse miracle, a disaster. And the same idyots claim that powercuts have no impact on the economy and that the economy does not need fixing! Paradise of twits!
Bafikamba, we are training for such eventualities and we will enjoy ourselves disciplining characters like you
Come on!!! Another excuse or what? Ms Banda you assured us that this johns of load shedding will end on Tuesdaynow this? U are taking our trust away now
PF and their cadres at Zesco are a joke. That’s why they want a cost reflective tariff, to reflect their incompetence and looting. In 2011, Sata campaigned that he would end powercuts but $10 billion later load shedding is worse !
It was commissioned on the same day it tripped. Lol
Looking at the bigger picture and how our long-term requirements in our power should be effectively and efficiently addressed Just over a few years ago power and electricity deficit was not a major concern at household and industrial level but this suddenly is the part of the national must address power shortages through forms of power shortages The crisis though should have been long been addressed had efforts and foresight to address and plan for this inadequate energy had been planned There was too much reliance on hydro and little paid to coal and other forms The integrated resource plan even now is not complete in energy mix and is not…
adequately addressing the future we need in the energy mix in the energy resource plans for the next 30 years or so The integrated resource plan is outdated and needs review to ensure a balanced energy mix emphasing other renewable energies but only as an energy mix competency avoiding again the danger and dependence on mamba coal Having developed mamba as coal you will need to up and develop other renewable nuclear and gas power alongside coal as a long-term energy mix in the Integrated energy mix especially as base load energy mix and avoid the danger of again thinking coal has given us the solutions
There is need to up the initiatives and update the integrated energy…
plans as is critical to future energy mix we need to address the power shortages In doing this Government could not achieve along except to engage the Private Public partnerships engaging and creating that initiatives and Trust within the sector to promote the much needed investments in the energy mix to address effectively our power needs without being complacent as in the previous years that have seen us to be where we are with hydro and now mamba being seen as the only savior
Let’s relook again at the integrated energy plan ,align the energy mix and encourage further investments by private and Government
There is need also to relook at the current capacities also we…
have and improve the SAID and the SAIF on these distribution from the current available power There appears to be also some failure in the transmission network we appear to have performed well last year but the muzuma minutes lost in transmission if continues might not reflect well on the system performance With some announced improvement in the EAF including the mamba coupled with demand side management , we expected load shedding to have been marginal except for water
Next time you give out expectations review and see them in view of the above We improving financials ,at least one would have expected improvement in generation power transmitted and made available with…
reduced load shedding and at least a firm forecast of how the power outlook should be from the Musonda and other sides over the years for industrials and domestic to plan effectively
Review also the structure of your invoicing your maximum demand and heavy industrial customers and the energy charges and other costs to ensure it reflects these challenges off peak and standard factoring in the transmission capacities also Announcing the load forecast or publishing will be also be effective to ensure clients manages according to the most effecitve energy consumption mix in demand ///
Yama having worked for this utility I know the engineers in transmission are competent and their Directors the emphasis should be on creating an energy mix with the review of The old Integrated Power resource plans for the country creating conducive environment with trust for private sector to participate and invest in the energies The transmission engineers work that I can tell you as a former employee but to think mamba has reached us is far fetched and a fallacy
Bessie Banda for how long are you going to lie to people? Do you think we are children in primary school whom you can fool with diplomatic language when we can clearly see through your lies? We are tired of you people taking us for granted. If you cant run this fossil, privatise it. Simple.
Zesco is useless.
Simply look at the number of IPPS that have successfully are transmitting and making available power to Zesco and see why and observe the reasons Ndola energy a partly 40 and mamba is not something so reliable by nature so you have not reached to that reserve margin you may desire and export to avoid importation Financing is one initiative we can help to unlock this potential /////
@Jonathan, please get real!
If you are expecting Lungu and his PF to PLAN Zambias power supply for the next 30 years you are dreaming!
Their only “plan” is to BORROW another 1.2 billion dollars from the IMF to steal as much of it as they can
Thinking of Zambias future generations is way beyond their selfish little brains!
Foolish pf…u are such an embarrassment to this Zambian economy….
How can two generators trip up at the same time; this is just half the story…..imagine you buy a new TV and the fuse blows, where do you think the fault trail will begin..only in Zambia where incompetence and myopia is tolerated …how can these people continue like this!!
LUNGU’S BRAIN HAS ALSO TRIPPED WITH VODKA,SO EVERYTHING IS TRIPPING NOW.
Obviously non of the above are Power System Engineers, judging from the ignorance displayed.
your point being? and who are the above you refer to? the article or the bloggers responding to the article?
WITH MAAMBA AND OTHER POWER GENERATING UTILITIES BASED IN UPND STRONGHOLDS……AND PUTTING 1 AND 2 TOGETHER, I THINK THIS IS SABOTAGE BY UPND TO EMPHASIZE THAT IT WAS WRONG FOR PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR PF. TO ME THERE SEEMS TO BE NO GENUINE REASON FOR THIS LEVEL OF POWER OUTAGES. ITS NOT LOADSHEDDING. HAVING TRIED ALL THE COURTS, HH HAS NOW RESORTED TO MANIPULATING AND SABOTAGING POWER GENERATING COMPANIES. GOD WILL SORT OUT WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS.
What rubbish!
Next you will be blaming HH for the drought!
Or maybe it is his fault we had slavery and colonialism?
Wake up you tierd, the person running the country is named LUNGU!
Lungu commissioned Maamba Collieries duping Zambians. The dociles voted for him thinking they will have electricity only to remain in darkness and the guy in in State house. All of a sudden the guy has stopped commissioning of projects to hoodwink people and he is just swearing people almost every week his only preoccupation in the next five years.
I appreciate zesco . At least she speaks with her heart . Madam be assured of our support. Such things do happen. Especially this time around when rains are on.
Rains are on?? where? in Southern province?
I think ama webi and pia have done remarkable in transmission that I acknowledge and comment but the GOV has a lead to plan for a thorough Integrated energy Plan for 30 yrs. with a proper energy mix especially moving that mix to the north
It should be not be the kelvin project type of moving pipe lines across the country from Angola to Kasama Its not feasible and commercially viable You would rather do it from Tanzania The geography and nature of that fuel makes the gas the plant very expensive to run and operate yes
Luapula North-western and Northern offers the potential especially that the rainfall pattern for 2017 will…
will likely be below average looking at the forecast for much needed waters to run the hydro’s for that power and coal by nature requires the plan to cool to run again
Its now we should be thinking about acquiring mobile power plants and the likes of turkey kapower ships to deploy on our lakes and sites to ensure we mitigate the energy crisis for years to come Utilising the CEC transmission capacity and building it further to Congo will also help to address the southern risk aspect
ZESCO Muzuma substation being upgraded to KV 330 (from KV 220) in order to be connected to the national grid as soon as the Maamba coal plant station is commissioned. Seriously how did someone from zesco management not foresee that problem? I am not an electrician but even I know that I cant supply a 220 KV substation with almost 270 KV of power and not expect a trip out seriously???? ZESCO poor planning they should anticipated that…………….
EVERYONE GO SOLAR AND GAS – FORGET ZESCO
NEXT ATTRACTION – TARRIFS
PLAN AHEAD AS WELL IF GRZ CAN’T
WE ARE STUCK
WE ARE EMOTIONAL REACTORS
WE HATE PEOPLE WHO THINK- ESPECIALLY AHEAD
Ifyabupubafye. Excuses………. Bra bra…….
There is need to increase the capacity factor to near 70% for for this mamba to be reliable in the short to medium term The transmission side is not really critical as Zesco Transmission Engineers are competent to resolve without any doubt long-term as is reliable We need that capacity of above 70% for mamba to be a reliable source that will give us the continuous power that we may need always for so many hours as you explore and plan for other mix like natural gas ,wind , nuclear, scaling up solar if you will ever have some reserve margin that is You will need to provide for investors in renewable energy sources and try to have a balance of the energy…
generation that will give enough capacity factor Good work ama webi Scotsman its like scheduling in sheq and ba pea and big derijo on the field The issue will be mamba capacity factor long-term
Ba sister besu bana Banda kuli ba king spoke very well to sensitise also us Zambia’s but the solutions lies in the mamba capacity factor and planning an integrated energy mix for the country long-term
Its sad that some small town and municipality in the region has more capacity installed than the whole Zambia energy sector yet has NO HUGE POTENTIAL WATER RESOURCES BUT PLANNING IS KEY TO DIVERSIFY AND ALIGN
if you are going to samfya from mamba you pass through chembe to mansa then turn samfya road by mansa hospital when you reach Pa mabumba there ,You can see the potential in energy mix to at least mitigate the power shortages in renewables like REA seems to be addressing
At least mamba should not make you not see the potential and real options for now pa mabumba pa research institute palya pa mabumba pali bashi kalaba natutute twalelyapo
excuses, excuses…all get from this institution are excuses. why?
Presenting its World Outlook 2016, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said gas and alternative energy will feature prominently in the race to meet global demand until 2040. The big loser will be coal
You can also actually make more mamba coal fired plants in all major towns solwezi kasama ndola and eastern including Kafue Lusaka to ensure you remove and balance capacity from heavily mamba there and balance the geography