By Cecilia Chiluba 
ZESCO Limited has announced that residential customers will receive 5 hours of power supply daily instead of 7 hours, following a reduction of 150 Megawatts in available electricity.
A statement issued by ZESCO’s Corporate Affairs Department indicates that the reduction in available power is a result of an emergency shutdown of a generator by Maamba Energy Limited.
The Corporation said the loss of 150 Megawatts of power further constrains its supply capacity, leading into stage 10 of load management.
“However, there will be no change to the current supply schedule for farmers, industrial customers, and critical loads such as hospitals, water treatment facilities, and security installations,” the utility said.
ZESCO implored its customers to use the limited available electricity efficiently during this period of severely constrained supply.
“By switching off lights in rooms not occupied, minimizing the use of high energy consuming appliances such as geysers and electric heaters, we can save that energy required to keep the lights a bit longer,” it added.
ZESCO recently introduced Stage 10 of its load management program, which involves staged load shedding.
This is part of a broader system where higher stages indicate more severe load shedding, with Stage 1 signifying more hours of electricity and Stage 12 representing the least.
Currently, Zambia is experiencing Stage 9, where customers receive seven hours of electricity.
This means they receive power for seven hours and are without electricity for the remaining 17 hours each day.
News Desk 
Joseph Tembo