Mozambican gas firm part of Zesco’s ‘rescue plan’

ZESCO has further reduced electricity generation at Kariba north bank power station to 300 Mega Watts (MW),blaming this on it’s customers who they say consume too much electricity after load shedding hours. The country now only has 1,158 Giga Watt hours (GWh) of electricity accessible for generation at Kariba from the 4,996 GWh which was available for the period June 1, to December this year. Zesco senior manager for marketing and public relations Bessie Banda said at a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the Kariba power station could be shut prematurely due to the impending lack of water for electricity generation.Zesco previously generated 800 MW from Kariba before the figure trickled down to 560 MW after the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) rationed water supplied for generation owing to poor rainfall.Ms Banda said the current pattern of consumption after the 8-hour daily load shedding programme was not helping the rationing exercise which is intended at conserving water for electricity generation in the months ahead.She said the trend of consumers maximising the usage of electricity while the commodity was available could lead to Zesco prematurely shutting Kariba power station as early as next month.