Water levels in the lake dropped by 1.66% of usable storage on Monday for the Kariba North Bank Power Station in Zambia and the Kariba South Bank Power Station on the Zimbabwean side. of the lake, said the Zambezi River Authority, which manages the dam.
The north shore power station has an installed capacity of 1,080 megawatts (MW), while the south shore power station in Zimbabwe has a capacity of 1,050 MW.
Hydropower contributes to over 75% of Zambia’s electricity generation.
“We asked them to give 180 MW but after negotiations they went down to 110 MW,” utility president Vickson Ncube told Reuters, referring to mining companies in Africa’s No. 2 copper producer .
Last week, Zesco doubled the number of hours it cut supply to domestic customers to 12 hours from six hours a day as low water levels in the lake threatened power generation. energy.
Water levels in the lake have declined due to reduced inflows from the Zambezi river and its tributaries and heavy use by power generation companies in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Ncube said power rationing was expected to ease by the middle of next month as water levels rose and full generation was likely to resume in March.
(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by Bhargav Acharya and David Evans)
