North West powered up in $165m project

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 11:49:42 +0000

By CHIKUMBI KATEBE

ZESCO has completed the US $165 million connection of North Western Province to the national power supply grid.

Zesco spokesperson Henry Kapata said the project has been successfully completed after a 22-month undertaking which now connects 10 of the 11 districts in the province to the national hydro power supply.

He said the province has depended on diesel generated power which cost the utility huge amounts on energy demand, costing up to an average of US $8 million annually on operations and supply of diesel to the province.

He said Zesco was spending about 2,500 litres of diesel in each district for power generation until recently when the area was connected to the national grid.

“This means all the six districts that were supplied from diesel stations in North Western have been successfully connected to the grid and all diesel stations have been decommissioned.

“The five districts where diesel machines were used are Mwinilunga, Mufumbwe, Kabompo, Zambezi and Chavuma and the last district to be connected under the North Western Grid Extension Project, Chavuma, was connected on 6th June 2017,” he said.

Mr Kapata explained that Mushindamo district was not on the Zesco supply feed as it was serviced by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) while Ikelenge was still on the cards for connectivity under a different project scheduled to commence next year.

He said the following districts have been catered for under the Zesco Grid Extension Project – Mwinilunga, Mufumbwe, Manyinga, Kabompo and Zambezi.

And that those that used the internal Zesco supply were Kalumbila, Kasempa and Solwezi and Mushindamo district that was connected by REA.

Mr Kapata however explained that only the recently declared district Ikelenge remained to be connected under a different project to be commenced next year.

And Mr Kapata has disclosed that the company was working on connecting Lukulu district in Western Province which will be commissioned by end of July 2017.

He said Manyinga district was already connected to the national grid through Kabompo and was working very well

He has since urged the business community in the province to make use of the connectivity to grow their businesses from the power supply.

“We now expect a lot of economic activities in North Western Province and we urge the business fraternity to invest in the province.

‘‘We have been spending an average of 2,500 litres of diesel in each district before connecting the districts to the grid.

“Diesel stations were only operating from 06 hours in the  morning to 24 hours, denying the people a lot of economic activities,” he said.