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Power outages are a danger - Mpombo

Power outages are a danger - Mpombo
By Chibaula Silwamba, Mwila Chansa, Speedwell Mupuchi and Justi
Sun 20 June 2010, 04:02 CAT

FORMER energy minister George Mpombo yesterday charged that countrywide power outages are a danger to national security and the economy and demanded that the government finds a lasting solution to the problem.

And about 110 miners were on Friday trapped for over nine hours in a cage underground at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Chililabombwe due to power outages experienced in most parts of the country.

Meanwhile, operations at Mazabuka Community Radio Station in Mazabuka were paralysed after several equipment including the only transmitter were blown off due to Friday’s intermittent power outages.

Mpombo, who is also MMD Kafulafuta member of parliament, said it would be illogical for Zesco to export power to South Africa now when Zambia had insufficient power for local consumption.

Commenting on the countrywide intermittent power blackout on Friday, Mpombo said the problem was totally unjustified and unjustifiable.

“The situation is of great concern because this is not happening for the first time. Over the past two years, this sort of situation has become common. Energy is the driver of the economy and has serious security implications. Therefore, I think it is important for government to find a way forward in this particular situation because, for instance, it can create unnecessary problems,” Mpombo said.

“And this is happening at the height of the World Cup and it deprives the people the right to enjoy watching the World Cup. Government must go deeper in looking at this particular issue. We must not gross over this particular issue. It has serious implications to the economy and the security of the country. Therefore, we must handle it with great caution and care; let us not skirt around the issues; let’s go deeper and find out the problems.”

Mpombo also called for investments in power generation.

“This is a pattern that has been coming out, it’s a disturbing nature and certainly we cannot continue to live in this particular situation. Also there is the need for government to invest so much resources into the development of hydro-power in the country. There has been too much talk without any action…the development of Kafue Lower, Itezhi Tezhi and some other hydro power project that have been highlighted,” Mpombo said.

“The current situation where there is no power countrywide is not good and must be resolved as quickly as possible. Imagine you have general elections going on and people are voting and this kind of situation happens, it can throw the whole country into disarray. I think we must focus on resolving this particular issue. I would describe the development as totally unjustified and unjustifiable.”

Mpombo also said Zesco must not export power to South Africa at this time of the year.

“It will be illogical to consider exporting power to South Africa given our fragile state of power in the country. I don’t think we have surplus and people will think that this problem has arisen out of Zesco’s interest to supply power to South Africa. It’s an issue that Zesco must put its house in order. You cannot start to export power in this kind of situation obtaining in the country,” said Mpombo.

In January this year, then Zesco acting managing director Cyprian Chitundu said Zesco would supply power to South Africa to help avoid power disruptions during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

“We support each other with South Africa (and) what is going to happen is that when they need some power, we will be able to give them that power. But I have also realised that we are constrained and so, we are only going to give them power during the off-peak hours when we do not need so much power,” Chitundu had said.

But Zesco’s current managing director Ernest Mupwaya on Thursday dismissed assertions that his firm was exporting power to South Africa.

He said Zambia did not have sufficient power to export. Mupwaya urged Zesco clients to register for text message information system with the firm so that they could be updated about what was happening, particularly concerning faults on the power supply.

Zambia on Friday suffered a massive power blackout that affected most provinces caused by a failed circuit breaker at the power generation plant at Kariba North Bank.

And Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) secretary general Oswell Munyenyembe said the safety of miners was not guaranteed, urging Zesco Limited to have a back-up plan.

In an interview yesterday, Munyenyembe confirmed that as a result of the power outage, the cage that transports miners to and from underground could not work properly.

“At number one shaft in Konkola, 100 miners were trapped while at number three shaft, 10 miners were trapped in the cage giving us a total of 110 miners. They were in there from about 10:00 hours to 20:00 hours. However, all of them were safely evacuated at 20:00 hours when power came,” Munyenyembe said.

He explained that when power went off, most miners went to shaft three where they were supposed to be ferried to the surface from underground but the cage could not make it because of insufficient power.

Munyenyembe said MUZ was concerned about the safety of its members because this was not the first time such a thing was happening.

“If you remember very well, we had a similar problem last year and we are getting worried because the safety of our members is not guaranteed. If the fans underground were to go off, we would have a very serious problem with ventilation underground,” he said.

Munyenyembe said there was need for Zesco to be proactive by preventing any threat of loss or actual loss of life by ensuring that they had back-up plans to their system in an event of a power outage. He said if the current trend continued, lives could be lost.

“Their Zesco explanation is not very convincing and if such a thing repeats itself, we don’t know what will happen. It’s quite unfortunate and embarrassing for the country,” he said.

And Munyenyembe disclosed that three transformers were blown up at shaft one when power was restored because it came with force. He said a number of computers were also damaged at the general offices in Chililabobwe. He added that number one shaft had also been flooded as a result of the power outage and that the miners were making efforts to pump out the water.

Munyenyembe urged the government to open up the electricity sector for investments in power generation.

At the Chinese owned Non Ferrous Cooperation Africa Mining (NFCA) in Chambishi, some computers were damaged but no miner was adversely affected. A source at the mine said at the time power was disrupted, the cage was stationary.

And Kansanshi Mine public relations manager Godfrey Msiska said the mine lost nine hours of production. He said power was restored at around 17:45 while production only resumed around 19:00 hours.

“I can’t count the cost in terms of loss,” said Msiska.

And Mazabuka Community Radio station has since written to Zesco to complain about the blowing off of its equipment that left the radio station off air.

Station manager Bellon Chintombwa confirmed in an interview yesterday that the transmitter, valued at K70 million and two computers valued at K5 million each were confirmed to have been blown off.

Chintombwa said the equipment was blown off after power tripped and switched on few seconds later with more current.

And in his letter dated June 18, 2010 addressed to the Zesco area manager, Chintombwa appealed to Zesco management to repair the equipment within the shortest possible time.

“It is for this reason that we are writing to request you to look into this matter urgently and find ways of helping to repair the station equipment especially that the radio is off air and we have no standby transmitter,” stated Chintombwa.

And Zesco quickly responded to the complaint and went to inspect the burnt equipment at the radio station.

After the inspection, a Zesco official advised the station to go ahead and repair the equipment and keep the receipts for the costs that would be incurred.

Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, POWER OUTAGES

posted by MrK @ 5:23 AM