Role of Thermal Power

Socio-economic progress is connected to availability of adequate , reliable and affordable energy, particularly in modern forms.

The Zambian economy has been growing consistently, leading to 4-5% annual growth in electricity demand. In particular, energy intensive industry has grown considerably, driving up base load requirements.

Zambia’s power sector is presently dominated by hydro-electric power with an installed capacity of 1676 MW out of the country’s total installed capacity of 1760 MW. The balance is contributed by gas turbines and diesel power generating plants.

The Zambian Power System is a vital part of the South African Power Pool (SAPP) through interconnections at high voltage to Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia Democratic Republic of Congo, etc. experiencing shortage of power.

This necessitates widening the potential for power generation sources in Zambia to meet the growing domestic demand as well as to export power to the SAPP region.

Thermal power plants are ideally suited and play a vital role in meeting the base load requirements of power. Maamba being the largest coal mine in Zambia, offers excellent opportunity to set up coal fired thermal power plants of sizable capacity.