‘Zambia to blame for power cuts’

Zambia’s overuse of the world’s biggest man-made reservoir to generate electricity has depleted its water levels, according to Guy Scott, a former vice-president who led the country for three months until January this year.

His comments contradict government assertions that drought is to blame for the worst power crisis the country has seen.

Lake Kariba straddles Zambia’s border with Zimbabwe, generating hydro-power for both Southern African countries.

Poor oversight has allowed both nations to compete in over-exploiting this source of electricity, Scott said, driving water levels down to 29 percent of capacity this month from 70 percent a year ago.

“What we have now is a weak regulator sitting between two puppies drinking milk from the same saucer,” Mr Scott, who is still a member of parliament, told MPs in the capital, Lusaka, according to a transcript posted on parliament’s website on Wednesday. “If one does not lick fast enough, it will not get as much as the other one.”

Kariba’s low water levels have compelled both countries to cut electricity generation and have led to rotating power cuts that last as long as 14 hours a day.

Zambia’s energy shortage has also led to mine suspensions in Africa’s second-largest producer of copper and thousands of planned job cuts, and has contributed to this year’s 47 percent depreciation of the kwacha, the world’s worst-performing currency, against the dollar.

The power crisis, along with low copper prices, will cause Zambia’s economic growth to slow to 3.4 percent this year from the government’s initial target of more than 7 percent, according to Barclays. That would be the most sluggish pace since 1998, when the economy contracted. The government is trying to shield mines from the electricity shortage as copper accounts for 70 percent of exports, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda said last month.

While operators have been asked to cut their power use by 30 percent, most mines are able to continue normal production through more efficient use and buying imported power, according to Copperbelt Energy, their biggest supplier.

Zambia made the situation at Kariba worse by continuously running a 360MW hydro-power expansion, designed only to operate for 3½ hours a day during peak demand, said Mr Scott, who became acting president when Michael Sata died in October.

Mr Scott officially opened the plant, which increased generating capacity on the Zambian side of the dam by 50 percent, in August last year.

“I am the one who turned it on and I said, ‘Is there enough water for this?’ It was a huge contraption and everybody said ‘yes’,” he told legislators on September 23.

“When I went to sleep at the hotel down from the Kariba Dam, all night and morning the water gushed past. Once they had their toy, they pushed the button, turned it on and left it, and down went the water.”

Meagre water levels at Kariba and at the Kafue Gorge power station, which account for almost 90 percent of the country’s generation capacity, mean Zambia could supply an average of only half of normal peak power demand in September, Mines and Energy Minister Christopher Yaluma said.

Total installed generation capacity from all power plants is 2,300MW, according to Zesco, the state-owned power supplier. While data from Zesco show that water inflows from the Zambezi river were lower than previous years, the company has also used more water than it is allocated, figures in a September 5 statement from the utility indicate.

The Zambezi River Authority, which regulates Kariba and is run by the two countries’ governments, allocated Zesco water to generate 1,944 gigawatt hours of electricity from April through September, according to the statement. — Bloomberg.