Load Shedding Causes Losses Worth Billions Of Dollars

On the 11th May 2021, Zesco Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs Dr John Kunda assured the nation that the four-hour load shedding which the country was to experience would not exceed the stipulated 15 day target.

Although this announcement appears to share positive news of ZESCO sticking to their promise, it hides the issues which load shedding has brought to the country as a result of poor government planning towards energy diversification.

Demand for Energy

Year on year Zambia sees its demand for energy and fuel increase.

Demand for energy has been rising over recent years due to growth in the mining and manufacturing industries. Subsequently, each year the demand for energy within the country has increased by around 3%.

Demand for fuel is also growing. According to the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), the demand for petrol is around 52million litres per month and is projected to continue growing at a rate of around 40% per year.

The government currently imports all of its own petroleum requirements at great cost. However, the country has both the capacity and the resources to produce biofuels to utilise for energy as a replacement for petroleum to help reduce import costs. Projections show that only 11% of Zambia’s arable land would be required to satisfy the country’s fuel consumption every year, subsequently reducing import costs and saving the government important cash.

Lack of Energy Supply

As energy demand has increased over recent years, supply is lagging as the country has failed to update electricity generation capacity.

Heavy reliance on hydropower plants at the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River has caused Zambia and its neighbour Zimbabwe to suffer power cuts on several occasions when droughts occur.

The country has four main hydropower stations which supply 85% of its electricity. Only one coal fired plant at Maamba Collieries as well as a solar project are able to provide power to the country when it experiences drought and hydropower stations cease to work.

When the country experiences times of drought and hydropower stations are unable to function, or when the demand for energy simply outweighs supply, a period of load shedding occurs. Load shedding started in Zambia in 2015 as a result of the drought which the country experienced. It is carried out to reduce excess strain on the energy supply system by shutting down parts of a power-distribution system.

Consequences

A secure and uninterrupted supply of energy is essential for any economy to function. When load-shedding occurs everyone is impacted, from households to farms and small businesses as well as industrial sectors such as mining. For small businesses it causes several issues. For example, the fresh meat which butchers bring in each day is going bad far faster than usual as a result of a lack of electricity to run their fridges which helps keep the meat fresh.

Load shedding also decreases the overall efficiency of copper mining in the country by up to 60%, a severe blow for an economy which relies so heavily on the export of the metal.

Access to electricity can also improve education, by extending time for studying, as well as improve human welfare as a consequence of a more amenable life, once the time devoted to domestic activities decreases and spare time increases.

Subsequently, Zambia has lost productivity worth billions of dollars over the past decade as a result of energy poverty, where energy supply does not meet demand.

Chenai Mukumba of the Consumer Unity Trust, an NGO that protects consumer rights, said that “the situation that we are currently in is really unfortunate because a number of years ago there were already predictions about how we [the government] can look to diversify our energy supply,” she said.

Ms Mokomba went on to say that solar is a resource that the government is not fully capitalising on, in spite of the levels of sunshine which the country experiences.

As a result, the government has not taken its chance to grow energy supply through utilising energy sources such as solar. Change needs to occur through government action if the country is to recover from repeated periods of load-shedding which causes losses worth billions of dollars.

Photo: Lusaka Times