By SILUMESI MALUMOGOVERNMENT has challenged Zesco to come up with a marshal plan to negotiate better electricity tariffs with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to have cost reflective tariffs.Zesco is suffering heavy losses as a result of buying power from private producers at very high tariffs but supplying it cheaply, subsidising domestic customers leading to the company accruing more debt to banks and independent power producers.The utility company buys power from IPPs at K1.98 to K2.86kWh and sells it to domestic consumers at K1.10/kWh, while the interim selling price to mining firms is K2.05/kWh.Energy Minister, Mathew Nkhuwa, said the IPPs had assured Government that they were ready to negotiate with Zesco.Mr Nkhuwa said he expected the Zesco management to constitute a team to start the negotiationsHe said in an interview yesterday that he was shocked that Zesco had not started the process with the IPPs.“These negotiations are not supposed to be done by Government but Zesco […]
ZESCO LOSSES ANNOY STATE
