Members of the Southern African Development Community, (SADC) namely: South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are battling with an unprecedented energy crisis as electricity supply falls behind electricity demand. The unprecedented crisis is manifesting in the form of successive rounds of load-shedding with countries that were already experiencing energy shortages like Zimbabwe and South Africa switching off power for up to 18 hours and 6 hours respectively.
In South Africa Stage 6 load-shedding started implemented from Tuesday, December 6th until further notice, said the power utility company ESKOM. South Africa has been implementing load shedding since 2021 with the longest blackouts being 7 hours under Stage 6 load-shedding. Mired with pre-existing challenges related to human resources, financing, and infrastructure attributed the recent announcement to move from Stage 4 to Stage 6, to a high number of breakdowns experienced earlier this week.
Northwards, an energy crisis is looming in Zambia and worsening for Zimbabwe as the neighbors rely heavily on the shared hydroelectric power generated by the Kariba Dam. The dam, which is the largest man-made is failing to meet its designed parameters for hydropower generation.
Low water levels in the Kariba Dam resulting from years of low inflows have affected Zambia’s ZESCO and Zimbabwe’s ZETDC power generation and distribution. The water level at Kariba dam is currently at 4.1% of usable water. Zimbabwe has already used up its water allocation from Kariba this year and draws 200 megawatts of power which is a fifth of the installed capacity.
Zambia’s Energy Minister Peter Kapala announced on Tuesday that the country would commence 6-hour rolling black-outs on December 15th. Load management will be rationing power generation in the dam for the next 4 months in order to avoid a complete shutdown, it is reported.
Zimbabwe is already experiencing its worst outages since 2019, cutting electricity to its citizens for up to 18 hours a day. “Kariba generates almost half of our power needs, which is why a reduction in its generation capacity immediately registers throughout our economy and in our lives”, said Zimbabwe’s President H.E Emmerson Mnangagwa in the national press. The Zimbabwean government on Tuesday announced plans to increase power imports from South Africa and Mozambique. as well as up production at the coal power generation from the struggling Hwange power station.
“Kariba will not shut down completely,” said Zimbabwe’s energy minister Soda Zhemu in an email.
