24/04/2024
There is no law in Zambia, which prevents any mining or industrial company to set up their own power generation plants to meet their electricity requirements.
The following are the projected national demands for electricity in megawatts (MW) that were estimated by the Ministry of Energy, with the baseline year being 2020;
2020- demand 2,456MW
2025- demand 3,338MW
2030- demand 5,432MW
2040- demand 8,624MW
2050- demand 11,039MW
At Indeni Refinery, I remember doing one of my sales visits while working for Atlas Copco and found Cummins engine powered generators providing standby power for selected critical equipment.
Mopani Copper Mines had also installed Perkins engine standby power generators for some critical equipment
Dangote Cement in Ndola runs some machinery using the coal fired power plants that produce electricity.
I still do not understand why we do not have a nuclear power plant in Zambia despite the availability of uranium.
Considering the financial limitation of ZESCO to produce all the electricity to meet the national demand as projected , the ministry of energy needs to encourage mining companies to set up their own power generation plans.
This will of course come with a huge cost of conducting feasibility studies to select the best technology, engaging a consulting firm to design the plant and an engineering firm to construct the power generating units.
Have a great day
