With the effective date for ZESCO’s newly approved emergency power tariffs fast approaching, the regulator—Energy Regulation Board (ERB)—has sent a clear message that it expects the power utility to adhere to the terms under which the emergency tariff adjustment was approved.
ERB Director General Elijah Sichone said when he appeared on ZNBC’s Sunday Interview that ZESCO must adhere to what it stated in its application to adjust the tariffs for the emergency period.
ZESCO indicated that it would supply seven hours of uninterrupted power supply to its domestic users from the current three hours when the new tariffs take effect on November 1. It hopes to raise US$15 million from this class of customers.
Citizens are watching this closely and will be unforgiving of ZESCO should it fail to live up to its undertaking. However, as the power utility must first raise the money before it can buy the power, which it must pay for upfront, it remains unclear if it will indeed supply its customers with seven hours of power from November 1.
It will likely be heavily supported by private power traders who have so far paid for most of the power imports ZESCO has so far been able to secure.
During the public hearing in Lusaka in support of its fresh application for an emergency tariff adjustment for domestic, commercial, and maximum demand customers, ZESCO’s Managing Director Victor Mapani said that the 400MW being currently imported into the country was not because tariffs had been increased but because ZESCO had gone into collaborative arrangements with certain power traders who are importing power on behalf of ZESCO, banking it with the utility, and picking it up at a later time when the situation improves.
“For example, if we are importing 200MW of power, they give us 200MW in October, November, and December so you calculate the total energy you have collected for those three months, and then when our power production situation improves, we will give back 10MW and they will give us a schedule and pick up this power over time maybe say over 20 months or 30 months.”
Mapani assured stakeholders that the primary goal, if the application was approved, was to alleviate the current situation to get to a better place and that the preference for any extra revenue was to invest in more power supply.
