By Glory Msowoya, MANA
Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) says it has failed to finalize maintenance works at Kapichira Power Station which were scheduled to be completed during this year’s Easter holiday.
In a press statement posted Tuesday, April 14 by the company management on its website, the company says has failed to meet the deadline it set for the works due to technical challenges encountered during the process.
“The works were planned to run from Friday 10th April to Monday 13th April 2020, however, due to technical challenges that have been encountered in the course of doing the work, it was impossible to conclude the works.
“Hopefully, it will be completed on Wednesday 15thApril 2020,” the statement reads.
The statement further said that due to the maintenance works the national power grid is missing 97.2 megawatts in line with the shutdown of the power generation machines to pave way for the maintenance works.
However, power generation at Nkula, Tedzani, Wovwe and diesel plants are in full operation providing power generation capacity at 241.45 megawatts.
“In order to successfully carry out the maintenance works, power generation machines at Kapichira are off as these works require draining water reservoir.
“We are, however, assuring the general public and all stakeholders that we are doing everything possible to ensure we conclude the works as soon as possible and bring back the Kapichira machines online,” the statement adds.
The maintenance works were aimed at improving the reliability and safety of Kapichira Power Station.
Currently, ESCOM customers are experiencing about five hours of power blackout every day.
