| Abstract |
Zambia has an installed electrical capacity of 1,774 MW with a peak load of 1,028 MW, most of which comes from three main hydroelectric stations: Kariba North Bank (600 MW), Victoria Falls (108 MW) and Kafue Gorge (900 MW). Despite the country's surplus of available electricity, only 20 percent of the total population and two percent of the rural population has access to the electricity grid. Zambia currently is pursuing plans to construct 200 km of 123 kV transmission lines between the Western province of Zambia and parts of Namibia. Discussions are also underway to interconnect the grid with Tanzania and Kenya. Zambia has a widespread occurrence of hot springs (over 80 recorded), some of which could be utilized to generate electricity using binary cycle technology. Two geothermal energy projects have been initiated: the first included the construction of a small geothermal plant while the second was planned but never implemented. In 1986 the Zambian Geological Survey, in conjunction with DAL, SpA (Italy), determined that the hot springs in Kapisya are favorable for commercial power generation. A pilot plant located in Sumbu on the shores of Lake Tanganyika was subsequently built with funding from the Italian government. The plant uses a total of 15 shallow exploratory and production wells, four of which have submersible pumps installed. The plant also has two Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbogenerators, with a nominal capacity of 200 kW which were last inspected by the Italian government in 1988. The project never became operational because resource temperatures were found to be too low. The government of Zambia is currently exploring options for refurbishing and commissioning the Kapisya geothermal plant after 15 years of being idle. Proposed project objectives include: o Identify an alternative geothermal prospect with higher resource temperatures. o Commission the turbogenerators by replacing missing and faulty parts and conduct trial operations. o Train local technical personnel in the maintenance and operation of the geothermal plant. o Form a consortium of local communities and the private sector in Nsumbu to operate the power plant and pay for its operation and maintenance. The second project involved planning for the development of a health resort and construction of a geothermal power plant to provide electric power to the local community at Chinyunyu Hot Springs, that is located 50 km east of Lusaka on the Great East Road. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency, in conjunction with the Zambian Geological Survey, undertook this project, which remains in the planning stages due to lack of funds. |