By STEPHEN KAPAMBWE –
THE race to transform Zambia from being a power deficit country to an energy surplus one is gaining momentum.
With major alternative power generation plants under development in Mazabuka’s Maamba town and other parts of the country, more power projects are underway.
Recently, three French companies were among 11 firms from nine countries that pre-qualified to submit bids for the development of the initial 2×50 Megawatts (MW) utility-scale power plants.
The solar energy plants project is part of an ambitious conglomerate of initiatives aimed at transforming Zambia into an energy surplus country that will start exporting electricity in a matter of months.
The current power deficit arose on account of a partial drought spell that led to low water levels that could not adequately support hydropower generation, especially in the Kariba Dam in Southern Province.
Following the crisis, President Edgar Lungu, in his capacity as chairperson of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), directed the corporation to target the immediate procurement of up to 600MW of solar power into the national grid as a matter of priority and urgency.

.CHIPWENDE

IDC chief executive officer Andrew Chipwende disclosed in a statement that the prequalification of the 11 companies followed a competitive process that ran from October 5 to November 13, 2015.
The 11 were prequalified to develop the initial 2×50 MW solar power projects under the first round of the 600MW scaling solar project which was announced and launched earlier this year.
The solar project follows up Mr Lungu’s directive to the IDC to call for applications to commence the process of redressing the power deficit and resultant national crisis.
This initial phase formed part of the drive for urgent development and installation of at least 600 MW of solar power.
Forty-eight companies applied to participate in the grid-scale solar power initiative following the closing of submission of applications for prequalification in October, 2015.
“The evaluation of bids was conducted by an evaluation committee comprising members drawn from the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), Zesco, Rural Electrification Authority (REA), Engineering Institution of Zambia (EIZ) and the IDC.
“The evaluation process involved a three-stage appraisal system with technical, financial and legal requirements being evaluated respectively,” Mr Chipwende said.
The 11 companies would participate in the Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop the first ever grid connected solar power plants in the country consisting of 2x50MW plants to be located in the Lusaka
South Multi-Facility Economic Zone (LS-MFEZ).
The 11 include EDF Energie Nouvelle, AccesEren Zambia 1 and Neoen First Solar from France; Scatec Solar (Norway); Mulilo Zambia PV1 Consortium (South Africa), Enel Green Power (EGP) (Italy), Globelege
(United Kingdom), International Power SA/Engie (Belgium) and Shanghai Electric Power/Avic (China).
Others are Africa Infrastructure Investment Fund 2 – Old Mutual Life Insurance Company – Cobra/CDE (Mauritius); and, Grupo T-Solar, SA (Spain).
The IDC is using the Scaling Solar model, which is a World Bank Group’s open, competitive and transparent procurement model that facilitates the rapid development of privately owned, utility-scale
solar Photovoltaic (PV) projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
Through the Scaling Solar initiative, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) offers a one-stop-shop solution and package of advisory services, template contracts, financing, guarantees and insurance.
All these are drawn from across the World Bank Group to help governments and utilities procure solar power transparently, competitively and at the lowest possible cost.
The eleven companies will now be provided with further information on the two solar power projects and will proceed to the final round of an open, transparent and competitive bidding process, out of which two winning bidders will be selected on the basis of the lowest proposed cost of electricity.
The winning bidders will finance, construct and operate as Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for 25 years.
Poor rainfall in the 2014/2015 season, owing to climate change effects, reduced water levels in, among other places, the Kariba Dam which houses one of Zambia’s major hydropower plants, the Kariba North
Bank, resulting in Zesco carrying out power rationing or load shedding across the country.
In September, Zesco warned of increased load shedding following a reduction in daily electricity production capacity at the power station from from 500 megawatts (MW) to 305 MW due to reduced water allocation by Zambezi River Authority (ZRA).
ZRA’s reduced allocation was arrived at following a quarterly review based on water levels at Kariba Dam.
In the first quarter of 2015, ZRA revised water allocation to Zesco and Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), which runs Kariba South Bank power station on the Zimbabwean side, from 45 billion cubic metres to 40.2 billion cubic metres citing low water inflows into Kariba Dam during the 2014/15 rainy season.
The reduction in water allocation meant electricity production capacity on the Zambian side would drop to 500MW from about 800MW, leading to increased blackouts.
As at June 1, 2015, Zesco had 4,996 Giga Watt Hours (GWh) available for generation up to December 2015. The reduction left Zesco with 1,158GWh available for generation from August to December 2015.
That meant on average, the power utility would only generate up to 305MW from Kariba North Bank from about 800MW which the station normally generates.
Zesco warned that it would be forced to prematurely shut down the Kariba North Bank if water levels fell much faster to a low threshold level.
In response to the crisis, the Government moved towards investing in electricity generation in the northern half of the country which did not suffer from poor rainfall as did the southern half where all the major hydro-electricity power generation stations are located.
Projects in places like the Luapula River, were identified, where new hydro-power stations could be built.
But the effects of climate change led to a consideration of greener energy sources, like solar power, which could operate side by side with other power sources, and give the country advantage in energy
generation.
However, the new projects involved colossal sums of money which the Government did not have but the private sector had.
Therefore, adjusting the price of electricity in order to attract commercial entities had to be done to increase investments in electricity generation. Only then could alternative sources of energy be developed; such as solar and thermal.
“Apart from the low water levels in Lake Kariba and Kafue River, the power shortage has been occasioned by Zambia’s inability over the years to attract new investments in electricity generation on account of the low electricity tariffs.
“To address this, Government has revised the tariffs upwards from an average retail tariff of 5.64 to 10.35 cents per kilo watt per hour.
“This will attract investments in the energy sector particularly those interested in renewable energy such as solar, wind and waste-to-energy projects,” President Lungu told Parliament in November.
This is what led to, among other things, the on-going development of thermal power stations in Maamba and gave impetus to the IDC to pursue, among other energy projects, the 600MW utility-scale
photovoltaic scaling solar project which would take Zambia one step closer to becoming energy sufficient and ultimately produce surplus energy for export.
Endowed with immense power generation potential and sitting in the centre of a region crippled by power deficit, energy might just become Zambia’s next major export product as weak demand and poor
pricing on the global market reduces the economic importance of copper.