The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) says it has started developing a 600 megawatt solar power station as part of measures to diversify power sources to deal with a crippling nationwide power crisis.
Presently, the Zambia Electricity Supply Commission (Zesco) runs a daily load shedding regime of four hours to control peak power consumption amid reports that national power demand, which stood at 1 600 MW in 2009, would exceed 2 500MW by 2020, growing at progressive rates of between 150 MW and 200 MW a year.
In a national power supply appraisal notice issued on September 15, ZDA Communications manager, Margaret Chimanse, said through the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the government was developing the 600MW of solar power project as part of a deliberate policy of diversifying power sources to mitigate the shortage.
Further, she said there were other pipeline plans for solar energy development projects which, if implemented, would significantly reduce the gap between demand and supply for power by domestic and industrial consumers.
“The ZDA recently held very positive talks with a German company which seeks to invest $500-million in setting up a solar power plant that will produce up to a maximum of 400MW of power in two developmental phases.
“Another group of investors from Italy is interested in setting up a solar plant in the Lusaka South Multi-facility Economic Zone and two more in the Western and North-Western provinces. The proposals from the two companies suggest that they are very serious investors and they have the capability as well as the financial capacity to implement their plans,” Chimanse said.
She said Zambia was on course to achieve the diversification of power sources and the government was working on creating a conducive environment to attract foreign investment into the power sector. The ZDA hailed the new Maamba Colliery thermal power plant as a good example of a productive a public-private partnership project.
The plant, which was commissioned by President Edgar Lungu last month, already contributes 150 MW to the national grid. Zambia’s installed power generation capacity of 2 443 MW has been dogged by frequent plant breakdowns, largely due to the use of obsolete technology. In the past three years, drought has also contributed to a reduction in power output from the main hydro-electric power stations due to reduced water levels.