ZRA cuts Kariba Dam water allocation for electricity generation by 47%

BUSINESS REPORTER

The Zambezi  River Authority (ZRA) has cut  the amount of water allotted for power generation at the Kariba Dam by 47% to 16 billion cubic metres (BCM) from 30 BCM due to a water crisis, which is expected to exacerbate Zimbabwe’s ongoing power crisis, Business Times can report.

The governments of Zimbabwe and Zambia jointly own ZRA, a joint venture company that is in charge of managing the waters of the Zambezi River and the Kariba Dam complex, which includes the dam wall, water storage reservoirs, and other related ancillary facilities like equipment for monitoring lake levels and river inflows.

Due to a downward revision of the water allocation for 2024, the two power utilities that share water at Kariba equally for power generation—Zambia Electricity Supply Authority (ZESCO) and Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), a ZESA power generation unit—will each receive an allocation of 8 BCM starting next week, down from the current 15 BCM.

ZPC operates the Kariba South Hydroelectric Power Station and ZESCO manage Kariba North Bank Power Station.

ZRA CEO, Munyaradzi Munodawafa, confirmed the development.

“ZRA hereby announces that  it has allocated 16 BCM of water to be shared  equally between the two power utilities (ZESCO and ZPC) for their power generation operations at Kariba for the year 2024,” Munodawafa said.

He added: “The 2024 water allocation was informed  by the 2023/2024 rainfall forecasts made  by the Southern Africa Climate Outlook Forum-27 and the corresponding  downscaled  projections by the  National Metrological Agencies of Zambia and Zimbabwe, which all showed  a high probability of a normal  to below normal  2023/2024 rainfall season for the Kariba Lower Catchment  and normal to above normal  rainfall season  for the Kariba Upper Catchment.

“This general outlook is highly influenced by the increasing occurrence of El Niño weather conditions, which are expected to significantly negatively impact the rainfall season in southern Africa.

“Hydrological simulations carried out by the authority using the Kariba Inflow Forecasting System that is based on satellite rainfall measurements and numerical weather forecasts, providing short-term and seasonal flow forecasts, considered the high likelihood of a below-average rainfall season which, in turn, will likely result in below average inflows into Lake Kariba thereby negatively impacting the volume of water available for power generation during the year 2024.

“Accordingly, power utilities have been advised to consider alternative sources of power to complement generation at Kariba in order to fill any power generation deficit that could arise due to the lower water allocation at Kariba for the year 2024.”

 

Related