Zambia News

According to Energy Minister Kapala, load shedding will start.

Following the decline in water levels at the Kariba Dam, Peter Kapala, the Minister of Energy, has declared that a six-hour load shedding period will begin in the nation.

In a ministerial address to the House of Representatives on the deteriorating situation at the Kariba Dam and the steps being taken to manage it, Mr. Kapala stated that load shedding for the power outage will start on December 15 of this year.

“ZESCO will implement a load management regime to avoid a complete shut down and we anticipate this will translate to six hours of load management on a daily basis starting on December 15, 2022,” he said.

According to him, water levels have been steadily dropping due to poor flows from the main Zambezi river and its tributaries.

“Further, the situation has worsened to over utilisation of water for sustainable power generation which has resulted in low water levels,” he said.

In order to ensure security throughout the process, Mr. Kapala stated that the suggested measures will be phased in and reviewed over the following four months.

“The Zambezi River Authority has directed Zambia through ZESCO to reduce generation at Kariba to 800 megawatts until further control and Zimbabwe has also been directed to reduce to 300 megawatts,” he said.

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