Maravi

Zesco explains power outage

Zesco explains power outage
By Joan Chirwa, Sandra Mulowa and Edwin Mbulo
Monday January 21, 2008 [03:00]

A MAJOR system disturbance on the Zambian high voltage network is behind the countrywide power outage experienced on Saturday night, Zesco managing director Rhodnie Sisala said yesterday. Sisala said the collapse of the Zambian high voltage line also extensively affected the inter-connector system among Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, making imports of power from other countries practically impossible as the national grid was interrupted.

And mining companies and other industrial operations on Saturday night had a huge setback in production following the countrywide power outage. Meanwhile, Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA) chief executive Muyunda Illilonga has advised the government to take decisive measures on the future operations of Zesco Limited.

Briefing the press on the causes of the power failure that affected almost all parts of the country from Saturday night to yesterday morning, Sisala said the disturbance on the Zambian high voltage network resulted in extensive loss of power supply in the country and also affected the inter-connector system of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

He said they had not yet established the exact cause of the fault on the inter-connector system, as they were in the process of collecting information from Botswana and Zimbabwe to assist in the problem identification process.

“At the time of the tripping, the system status was as follows; at Kafue Gorge Power Station, four machines were running producing a total generation of 597 MW (Mega Watts). At Kariba North Bank, three machines were in operation producing a total of 473 MW.

Two units at Kafue Gorge and one unit at Kariba North Bank power stations are out of service due to the power rehabilitation project works,” Sisala explained. “The 330 kV Leopards Hill - Kariba North Bank Line One was off due to a collapsed tower.

For the rest of the Zambian system, the state of the major plant and equipment were in satisfactory condition and were in service.

The system disturbance was extensive in nature and affected the interconnected system of Zambian, Zimbabwe and Botswana.”

Sisala said the restoration process of power using the Black Start method was declared at Kafue Gorge, Kariba North Bank and Victoria Falls power stations, a system that requires external supplies to run oil pumps.

“A Black Start was declared and the three major power stations at Kafue Gorge, Kariba North Bank and Victoria Falls were given authority to implement the Black Start procedure. The restoration process started immediately at Victoria Falls power station which supplies the Southern and Western parts of Zambia and power was restored at 22.07 hours,” Sisala said.

“The restoration of power stations at Kafue Gorge and Kariba North Bank commenced with the starting of the stand-by diesel generators at each power station. Kariba North Bank was restored at 03:31 hours while Kafue Gorge was restored at 04;28 hours. High voltages were experienced during the restoration process due to low demand at the time of the night which led to the delay in restoration of the loads.”

Sisala further said it was difficult for Zesco to take preventive measures against such an incident but could only look at ways of mitigating a similar occurrence.

“Each and every major incident is thoroughly investigated. That is why we take long because we have to analyse technical information,” Sisala said. “These are natural phenomenons that first have to be mitigated as fast as we can.”

As a result of the power outage, Konkola Copper Mine (KCM), which is one of the country’s major mining investments, is reported to have had one of its shafts partially flooded while operations at its smelter were also disturbed.

Almost all parts of Zambia experienced a power outage of more than seven hours, from around 19:30 hours on Saturday to about 03:30 hours yesterday morning, grounding most commercial and industrial operations in the country.

“We have been badly affected by Zesco’s power cut which hit the whole country. One shaft at KCM has been partially flooded and the smelter is also badly affected,” said the company’s spokesperson Sam Equamo, adding: “We will issue a full statement on the impact of the power outage tomorrow (today morning) as we are still establishing the extent of the damage.”

And Chambishi Metals chief executive officer Derek Webbstock said the company lost three quarters of its daily production as a result of the power failure.

“Chambishi Metals requires a lot of power and although power has been restored now, we cannot operate because electricity has not stabilised yet,” said Webbstock.

And Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) chief executive officer Hanson Sindowe said CEC managed to supply 150 mega watts (MW) of emergency power to mining companies through its turbines and imported electricity from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“When that happened, we had to run our gas turbines around the Copperbelt and used part of our imports from the DRC to supply emergency power to the mines to avoid accidents such as loss of lives because the mines had to evacuate people from underground,” said Sindowe.

Meanwhile, Illilonga said the government needed to critically look at the operations of Zesco and ensure that measures were taken to enhance efficiency levels.

“The complaints against Zesco are too many and yet it appears nothing will be done about it,” Illilonga said. “To have unplanned power interruptions every now and then is quite worrisome. It has been four years since the start of Zesco’s commercialisation process but nothing seems to have been done.”

And Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry chief executive Justin Chisulo said Saturday’s power outage was symptomatic of what the electricity sector was going through in Zambia.

“We are not generating enough power to feed the new and upcoming industries and the mines. We are signing power supply contracts for power which is currently limited,” Chisulo said. “I think we need to allow those that can quickly source money and put up infrastructure for electricity generation.”

And the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) vice-president Sam Phiri described the national power black-out as pathetic and a disaster.

Phiri said there was need for authorities to take precautionary measures so that the country did not face blackouts.

"We have been getting information from people that operations couldn't be normal. Some had to shut down. We should learn from other countries. The problem is that we have gone into slumber," Phiri said.

He said Zambia could not afford to have one disaster after the other and that ZCTU was extremely disappointed with the incident.

“This is lack of vision to whichever administration is in power. We have reports of children dying in floods. From that a lot can be told. We should be focused," Phiri said. “This is a national disaster a lot of things have been damaged. We would like to hear from Zesco what really happened.”

Phiri said the issue required a sense of urgency like was the case during elections.
"When it comes to elections, they don't say 'we have no money'. This issue involves the lives of people," he said.

Phiri said the issue was not political but a national one and that no one should come up with politics.

And sources at the Victoria Falls power station said the facility was not under threat of over-flooding as it was designed to even operate under water.

Sources said the 1950 flooding of the Zambezi River submerged the power station but generation of power was not affected.

"Even when the Kaunda administration decided to build two more stations, 'B' and 'C', the architects designed the stations in such a way that should the river get flooded, the stations would be closed so as not to allow water damaging the turbines," said the sources.

Labels: NEPOTISM, PARASTATALS, RHODNIE SISALA, ZESCO

posted by MrK @ 8:25 AM