By JAMES KUNDA and HELEN ZULU –
THE Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) has approved the proposed construction and operation of an additional 50 Megawatt (MW) Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) electrical power generation plant by Ndola Energy Company Limited (NECL).
The plant to be located in Ndola’s Bwana Mkubwa area would be the second one by NECL, which already runs a similar facility adjacent to Indeni Petroleum Refinery.
According to a decision letter in approval of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) signed by ZEMA director general Joseph Sakala on October 2, 2014, NECL has been authorised to go ahead with the construction and operation of another plant.
“ZEMA has since reviewed the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and based on the information provided by yourselves (NECL) and from written and verbal comments from interested and affected parties and our site verification inspection findings; the said EIS has been approved,” Mr Sakala said.
Mr Sakala said NECL were expected to implement the project and all environmental management commitments as stated in the EIS with changes as proposed by ZEMA and any other conditions that may be issued thereafter.
He said NECL were further required to consult and comply in full with the requirements or specifications by the Energy Regulation Board (ERB), Zesco, the factories inspectorate and the Ndola City Council.
And the Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc (CEC) has commenced the construction of the second Zambia-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) interconnector project aimed at increasing power transmission capacity.
The company has at regional level commenced construction of the second Zambia-DRC interconnector project whose aim is to increase the transmission capacity from the current 260 to about 550 megawatts of power.
This is contained in the CEC financial interim results for year ended June 30, 2014.
The results indicate that the project which is targeted for completion by mid-2015, would significantly contribute to the creation of a firm and competitive electricity market in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
The dual circuit line interconnecting the Zambian and DRC electric grid systems would give a significant boost to increased regional power trade and security of supply within the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) as it would eliminate risks associated with single circuit lines.
During the first half of 2014, the Synclinorium project, whose objective was to deliver additional power to meet growing power demands of Mopani Copper Mine Plc (MCM) was completed.
Other projects that include the Non-Ferrous China Africa Mining Corporation (NFCA) South East Ore body and expansion of supply points to ZESCO are progressing well.