ZESCO has announced that residential areas will now receive only five hours of electricity per day, following an emergency shutdown of a generator at Maamba Energy Limited.
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In a statement, the power utility said the country has entered Stage 10 of load management, the most severe level yet, meaning homes across Zambia will experience 19 hours of load shedding daily.
This is due to a shutdown at Maamba which has caused a reduction of 150 megawatts in available electricity, worsening an already strained power supply.
Zesco said this forced the company to implement tougher load shedding measures in residential areas.
“Consequent to the notification of an emergency shutdown of a generator by Maamba Energy Limited, we have experienced a reduction of 150MW in available electricity.”
“This loss further constrains our supply capacity, leading us into stage 10 of load management. At this stage, residential customers will receive 5 hours of electricity supply,” read the statement.
The new measures mark a significant increase from the previous loadshedding schedule, where most households endured about seven hours without power each day.
Despite the drastic change for homes, the power utility said there will be no interruption to power supply for critical areas.
“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,” stated Zesco.
The utility urged customers to use the limited electricity efficiently by switching off lights in unused rooms and avoiding high consumption appliances such as electric heaters and geysers.
“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,” read the statement.
“We thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”
By Catherine Pule
Kalemba, June 25, 2025
