ZESCO has commerced load shading following critical low water levels at Kariba North Bank Power Station due to critically reduced water levels in reservoir dam.
Speaking in a press statement made available by ZESCO Corporate Affairs Department, it said as of 31 December 2022, the water level was at 475.60 meters above sea level.
The notice added that this necessitated the reduction of generation electricity at the 1080MW Power Station facility to below 400MW, and thereby affecting the ability to meet the system load/customer power demand, especially during morning and evening peak demand periods.
“This inability to meet the power demand will further be compounded by the planned outage of a 150MW generator at Maamba Collieries Limited Power Plant for routine annual maintenance scheduled to take place from the 4th to the 20th of January 2023,” the notice said.
The department further added that the generator outage at Maamba Coal Thermal Power Plant coupled with the critical low water level at Kariba reservoir will lead to ZESCO carrying out a rotational Load Shedding exercise which will now commence on Tuesday, 3rd January 2023.
And that to mitigate the effects of Load Shedding, ZESCO will endeavour to optimize electricity generation at all other power generating stations to the extent that the integrity and safety of the power system is safeguarded.
ZESCO has further advised it customers to take precautions and treat every power line supply as live.
“As a safety precaution, customers are advised to treat all power supply lines to be live, as power may be restored before the scheduled time,” the notice reads.
ZESCO will continuously notify its customers and the public on the power availability status through various electronic and print media house and that customers can look out for Load Shedding schedules in the press and the company website www.zesco.co.zm once published.
This is according to a press statement mada available on Sunday 01 January, 2023 by ZESCO Corporate Affairs Department.
