Home  News Electricity
Demand Drops
The
reduction in production by mines and the slowdown of investment in the country
due to the current global economic recession is expected to have a negative
impact on NamPower’s revenue.
The situation has led to a low demand for electricity since the
end of last year. The country’s current demand stands at a maximum of 393 MW
compared to an average of 430 MW the same time last year.
“This is a real problem. Weatherly has already closed down their
operations and many other large customers, particularly the mining houses, have
scaled down their operations resulting in the retrenchment of staff at their
respective companies,” said Managing Director, Paulinus Shilamba during the
NamPower 2009/2010 Budget discussions with his management and those dealing with
budgets in their respective departments.
Shilamba added that the situation has
brought about reduction in electricity demand but relief on NamPower who
otherwise had to make additional power supply capacity available at a high cost.
“However, we believe this to be a temporary situation. It is
therefore important for NamPower to concentrate on its activities of project
implementation, to be in the position to satisfy additional demand when the
economy starts picking up again,” Shilamba noted.
NamPower is hard at work to implement its long term generation
projects to ensure that there is enough electricity when the recession period is
over.
“We can’t sit and relax now because of an artificial world
financial recession. It’s about time we take care of our own supply capacity. We
should push ahead,” added the General Manager for Generation, Simson Haulofu.
The low demand for electricity in the country is also attributed
to the willingness on the part of the public to save electricity.
|
