Zambia imports DRC electricity

AFP | Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:58
[miningmx.com] -- ZAMBIA has imported 60 megawatts of electricity from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to lessen the impact of a nationwide power blackout on the mining sector, an official said on Tuesday.

The southern African country had been without power since Monday night when the entire Leopard Hill sub station, which is Zambia's main source of power, collapsed.

Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) managing director Neil Cloucher told AFP that following a countrywide power blackout, CEC had to import 60 megawatts of power from the DRC as well as rely on 70 megawatts that it had in the emergency generators.

"The mines were affected by the blackout and we had to import 50 to 60 megawatts from the DRC. I am sure that production in the mines was affected by the blackout," Cloucher said.

CEC is the distributing firm of electricity to mining companies and is based in the Copperbelt province of Zambia.

Cloucher said the cost of importing the electricity would be carried by Zesco, the country's utility firm for power. However he declined to say how much the import would cost.

The blackout was caused by a fire on one of the transformers at Leopards Hill substation, Zesco's director of electrotech Chris Mubemba said.

The cause of the fire was not known but Mubemba said that as a result, the entire system at the sub station collapsed resulting into a countrywide blackout.

"We have not yet established what caused the fire but all I can say is that the whole system collapsed," Mubemba said.

He said electricity had been restored in some parts of the country.

Zesco's spokesperson Lucy Zimba earlier told AFP that about 1,400 megawatts had been lost so far, she said.

Two weeks ago Zambia was plunged into darkness after Zesco shut off two of its six generators at the Kafue Gorge hydropower station after dead weeds blocked the facility's water inlet, resulting in a reduced flow of water.

The company had to import electricity from South Africa and Namibia after nationwide blackouts. Although power was restored the next day the company implemented load shedding for several days, deliberately cutting power to parts of the system to prevent overload due to heavy demand.