Major outage leaves much of Zambia without power

By James Kunda

LUSAKA, Zambia (AA) – Zambia on Sunday suffered an abrupt near nationwide blackout which lasted not less than an hour.

National power utility company Zesco Limited said the power outage resulted from system failure.
“Zesco Limited wishes to inform its customers and the general public that it has experienced a system failure that may have led to the loss of electricity supply to some parts of the country. The corporation is working tirelessly to ensure that all systems are restored as quickly as possible,” John Kunda, a spokesman for the company, told reporters in the capital Lusaka.

He said the company regretted the inconvenience caused and all supply lines were to be treated so that power could be restored soon.

Among the regions that reported the blackout was the Copperbelt, which is home to the majority of the country’s copper mines, economic lifeblood for Zambia.

Further at risk was the well-being of COVID-19 patients on oxygen support in health facilities, including the University Teaching Hospital, which is the country’s biggest referral health facility.

Zambia has an installed electricity generation capacity of 2,800 megawatts (MW), of which 85% is hydro-based.

Last month, President Edgar Lungu inaugurated a 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower Hydro Power Plant that cost $2.3billion, which was said to have completely ended the southern African nation’s load shedding problems.