• Last night around 22 hours engineers carried out emergency works on the Kafue Gorge upper power station.
• There was a lot of debri coming with the waters in the Kafue basin.
• That debri threatened the smooth operation of the Kafue Gorge Upper Power station.

Zesco says the power outage experienced in some parts of the country last night was due to emergency works that were being carried out on the Kafue Gorge Upper power station.
Company Senior Corporate affairs John Kunda explained that Zesco Engineers carried out emergency works last night around 22:00 hours after noticing that there was a lot of debri in the Kafue basin.
Mr. Kunda said the debri, which is a mixture of the weed that is existing in the river as well as other solid materials that have found themselves in the river threatened the smooth operation of the Kafue Gorge Upper Power station.
He stated that upon noticing the waste material, the hydrology team collaborated with Engineers and ensured that they shut down the plant so as get rid of the debri from the river and prevent it from entering the turbines.
“Last night around 22 hours our team carried out emergency works on the Kafue Gorge upper power station and what happened is that there was a lot of debri coming with the waters in the Kafue basin, and that debri threatened the smooth operation of the Kafue Gorge Upper Power station. This is a mixture of the weed that exists in the river as well as other solid materials that have found themselves in the river.”
“And once our hydrology team noticed, they collaborated with our engineers and ensured that they shut down the plant to be able to remove all the debri from the river and prevent it from entering our turbines. Otherwise it would pose danger to the system” Mr. Kunda stated.
Mr. Kunda further said the team started working at 22 hours and completed the work at 04 hours today, hence some areas had their power restored by 05:00.
“So these were emergency works that were not planned for, and it was due to the quick resolution and action of our team that we prevented a catastrophe on our equipment,” he added.
And Mr. Kunda disclosed that the Kafue Gorge Lower power station is ready and the Engineers will soon give guidance when the machines will begin to run at full capacity.
He added that the power utility firm has enough capacity to meet the country’s power generation and is able to meet the load for the entire customer base.
Meanwhile, Zesco Public Relations Manager Hazel Zulu revealed that loss of supply experienced in Mwandi district, Western Province and surrounding areas since 02 March 2021 from 09:40 hours is due to a faulty transformer feeding into Mwandi District.
Ms. Zulu said in a statement that the technical team immediately undertook an assessment of the damaged transformer and have since commenced repair works.
“We would therefore, like to assure our customers that engineers will work round the clock to ensure that power is restored at the earliest possible time. Customers are however, advised to treat all supply lines as live as power will be restored as soon as works are completed,” she said.