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126
Energy & Water
Kafue underground tunnels.
Zesco’s Controlling Room at Livingstone Hydro Dam.
investment and expansion of operations within the
mining sector. While the situation was somewhat
improved when demand decreased in 2008, with
the revival of investment into the mining sector
during 2009 and 2010, the demand for power is
rapidly on the rise again. Nevertheless, no further
power shortages have been anticipated for 2011,
as measures taken to increase power generation
capacity will add 210 megawatts of electricity to
the national grid. This should be enough to meet
demand from new development projects expected to
continue in 2012 and onwards.
The power utility, ZESCO, has undertaken
major upgrading and rehabilitation of generation
infrastructure at Kafue Gorge and Kariba North Bank
hydropower stations. The rehabilitation of Kafue
Gorge has added 90 megawatts, while the upgrading
of Kariba North Bank is to add an additional 90
megawatts. Another 30 megawatts were added
during 2010 as well.
Work is well underway on the 360-megawatt Kariba
North Bank Extension Project, which should be
completed by 2012. This will bring the total installed
capacity of the power station to 1,080 megawatts.
Feasibility studies have been completed for the
Kafue Gorge Lower and Itezhi-Tezhi projects. The
120-megawatt Itezhi-Tezhi hydropower plant is being
developed under a joint venture investment scheme
with Tata Africa Holdings. The 600-megawatt
Kafue Gorge Lower hydropower plant is expected
to cost approximately US$ 1.5 billion and will be
commissioned in 2017.
While these large projects will almost double the
country’s ability to generate electricity over the
medium term, there is an urgent need to improve
the supply of electricity in the most remote areas
of Zambia in the short term. Given the high cost
of building lengthy distribution networks, the
government has begun to develop a number of mini-
hydro projects aimed at supplying smaller local areas
with electricity. Several projects have been identified
for which development is to take place within the
Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework, such
as the Kabompo Gorge and Kalungwishi projects.
The Copperbelt Energy Company (CEC) is to
spend US$ 120 million on the development of the
33-megawatt Kabompo Gorge hydroelectric project
on Kabompo River in North-Western Province.
The project is set to be complete by 2015. The
218-megawatt Kalungwishi hydroelectric project,
which is being built by the Zambian company
Lunzua Power Authority, will cost approximately
US$ 641 million, and is expected to be complete by
2014.
Zambia is also pursuing the development of
transmission inter-connectors with its neighbouring
countries. One such project is the Zambia-Tanzania-
Kenya power inter-connector. Other investment
opportunities in electricity transmission include the
Zambia-Malawi inter-connector; Zambia-DRC inter-
connector; and Solwezi-Kolwezi inter-connector.
As less than 20 percent of all Zambians and only
3.1 percent of the rural population have access
to electricity, public resources have focused on
stepping up rural electrification programmes, which
have received an allocation of K 234.7 billion in 2010.
This is a huge increase from the 2009 allocation of K
88.8 billion and the 2008 sum of K26.1 billion.
A US$ 3 billion bio fuel project, which is a joint
venture between Biomass Zambia and the