case_study_submission_energy_management_naoh_chongo_lusaka_city

Lusaka city diversifying the energy mix for a resilient power sector. Page 1
Case Study: Lusaka, diversifying the energy mix for a resilient power sector.
Cities, particularly in the developing world, face numerous challenges in responding to a
growing urban population by meeting rising demands for housing, food, water, transportation
and other infrastructure or services that ensure people’s wellbeing (Yanez, 2012). It is also
known that, nearly two billion people i.e., three in every 10 people – lack access to reliable
and affordable modern energy, constraining their health, education and earning potential. Of
this group, 60% live entirely without electricity for cooking, lighting and heating at home, for
community services such as schools or health centres, or for improving the productivity of
small business and farms (Shell Foundation, 2012). Since energy is believed to be the
lifeblood of cities, urban energy infrastructure managers need to contend with the challenges
facing the city energy infrastructure systems in order to provide access to energy across the
cities. The notion of resilient cities – cities that are able to respond and adapt to changing
circumstances has emerged over recent years in recognition of the challenges posed by
climate change, governance, disaster events, rapid urbanisation and the economic downturn
(Arup, 2012).
Studying the successful case of Lusaka will ignite an understanding of how urban energy
infrastructure managers need to respond to sociotechnical challenges in order to make the
power sector sustainable, efficient and resilient in their tasks of operations, maintenance,
and planning.
The objective of the Lusaka city case is to highlight the key challenges to the energy
infrastructure management focusing on demographic, socioeconomic, technical,
environmental, and jurisdictional issues. The case study also illustrates the need for
acceleration of the development and increased utilization of renewable energy technologies
in view of the current power deficit being experienced in the city.
Figure 1: Zambian Power System, National Grid, and Interconnections
Source: ZESCO Limited, 2004

Lusaka city energy management outlook
Lusaka officially became the capital city of the Republic of Zambia in May 1935, and was
elevated to the status of a City by the British Royal Charter, twenty-five years later. Lusaka
has since its transformation as a capital city steadily grown to its present status of one of the
most attractive and rapidly developing centres on the African continent. It is a metropolis,
which provides a home to more than 2 million inhabitants of many different nationalities. It
has grown to become the seat of Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) and as such
all diplomatic missions, international organisations, industries and commercial entities have
set base. Its political, social, economic and cultural significance has also increased through
the years. The city of Lusaka is 1,280 meters above sea level. The city covers an area of
375 km² of mostly flat relief. Lusaka’s central location, in addition to its capital city status,
gives it strategic importance, as it is easily accessible from all parts of the country. In recent
years, Lusaka has become a popular urban settlement for Zambians and tourists alike. Its
central nature and fast growing urban infrastructure sector have increased donor confidence.
Lusaka is experiencing typical urban problems associated with developments such as
population growth, high levels of urbanisation and unemployment (UN-Habitat, 2007).
Today, Lusaka City is also facing a serious energy crisis which has been mainly come as a
result of climate change variations.
Despite the challenges face by Lusaka urban infrastructure management, the city has
indicated quite radical potential of economic growth. This is evident in the recently released
MasterCard African Cities Growth Index (ukzambians.co, 2016). The index was produced on
behalf of MasterCard by Prof. George Angelopulo of the University of South Africa. It
includes 19 sub-Saharan African cities, ranking them according to their economic growth
potential between 2012 and 2017. The capitals of Ghana, Zambia and Angola have been
identified as the sub-Saharan African cities that have the greatest economic growth potential
Overview of energy sector in Zambia. Zambia is experiencing a power deficit of
approximately between 760MW and 1,000MW in January, 2016(Kalimiana, 2016).Reduced
generation capacity has been attributed to low rainfall experienced during the 2014/2015
and the current season, leading to low water levels in the two main dams at Kariba and
Itezhi-Tezhi.The Zambia River Authority has allocated 20 billion cubic meters for electricity
generation at Kariba in 2016 compared to the 45 billion allocated in 2015 for the next five
years.
Energy Management refers to the control and use of energy efficiently in industry and
domestic applications aimed at reducing energy consumption without sacrificing productivity
or increasing costs (National energy policy, 2008). Urban infrastructure managers in Lusaka
attend to all relevant stakeholders in order to achieve sound city performance indicators
namely efficiency, sustainability, and resilience.
Energy pricing is a fundamental tool for ensuring fair and equitable supply of energy. The
prices of firewood, charcoal, coal and renewable energy technologies are currently market
driven. Bulk trade of electricity is determined by bilateral contracts. The parties to the
contracts negotiate prices that are subject to the approval of the Energy Regulation Board
(ERB). Retail supply to households, commercial entities and industry is governed by the
Electricity Act. Currently retail prices include costs for generation, transmission, distribution
and supply and are uniformly applied across the country. The prices are regulated in
accordance with the Electricity Act and Energy Regulation Act.
Zambia’s power production of the total installed electricity generation capacity of 2,347MW.
Hydropower is the most important energy source in the country with 2,259 MW (96%),

followed by diesel contributing about 4% to the national energy supply (ZDA, 2016). Zambia
Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) supply electricity to the city of Lusaka and its
emerging surrounding slums. The company mainly assumes the public economy perspective
in providing its services to the city inhabitants in order to maximise its profits, while at the
same time it promotes energy efficiency as a resource for meeting the growing needs for
energy by reducing customer demand (ZESCO, 2014).
Lusaka’s energy infrastructure is operated by ZESCO limited .The company supplies power
through a network of high voltage electricity power cables/ lines. Maintenance involves
repairing step-down transformers and replacing aging power poles that support the network
of cables. The planning department ensures that the power supply is matched with the
prevailing power demand. In this case the infrastructure managers make sure that
infrastructural development of the city is forecasted with respect to demand. Operation of the
company involves daily short-term technical tasks that are required for the proper functioning
of the system. ZESCO is a vertically integrated state utility that engages in generation,
transmission and distribution of electricity. It accounts for around 80% of national power
production.
Across Africa, many countries are dependent on hydropower to meet their energy needs.
Although millions of people still remain off the electrical power grid, for example, 22% in
Zambia (ZESCO, 2014). Recently, drought has dramatically affected power generation for
across cities. The city of Lusaka struggles to keep the lights on for industrial and domestic
customers.
Due to the power deficit currently being experienced in Zambia, particularly the city of
Lusaka, it is necessary that the available supply is used efficiently by adopting energy saving
measures for continued social and economic development (ZESCO, 2014).Regarding the
electricity system in Zambia, electricity peak demand has outstripped existing supply.
Emerging mining developments has put further pressure on existing generation capacity.
The hydropower resource potential stands at 6,000 megawatts while installed capacity which
is 99% hydro based is only 1,760 while the national access rate to electricity is a mere
22%(National policy,2008).The country is highly committed to the introduction of renewable
technologies in its energy mix.
Clearly, Lusaka is dependent on national infrastructure for its electricity supply and for large
quantities of its primary energy supply via charcoal produced in the surrounding region.
While this is unsurprising, the high dependence on just two dams (one of which is located on
the Kafue) for electricity, makes Lusaka particularly vulnerable to supply shortages. This is
additionally concerning given the well observed challenges with mainly declining water levels
and the associated impacts on power production on the Lake Kariba (ZESCO, 2015).

Figure 2: Zambia electricity generation by source.
Adapted from: Zambia Development Agency, 2014, available at http://www.zesco.co.zm
Analytical perspective on the energy infrastructure systems.ZESCO is managed as a
parastatal company. The company is an arm of government that deals with strategic issues for
electricity. The perspective prevalent in the management of the energy infrastructure in
Lusaka is generally public economy perspective, whose objective is to provide the service in
a profitable manner. The company’s approach is that it considers the customer before the
citizen and the idea is that the public services that are provided are first of all catering to
customers. In this sense, the customer is expected to pay for the electricity services. The
company assumes this perspective in order for it to run profitably and at least able to cover
the costs of providing the services.
Players in Lusaka’s electricity system
Zambian energy market is regulated by the Energy Regulations Board (ERB). The Energy
Regulation Board (ERB) legal mandate is drawn from the Electricity Act, chapter 433 of the
laws of Zambia; and Energy Regulation Act, chapter 436 of the laws of (National energy
policy, 2008).
Electricity infrastructures and operators. ZESCO is the key utility company supplying Lusaka
with electric energy. Since 1970s, there has been limited infrastructure development in the
energy sector. The need to expand the energy system was delayed because of the reduced
energy demand from the industrial sector (Tembo, 2016). Electricity deficit experienced in
Lusaka will be reduced with the help of the newly commissioned coal fired power plant
operated by Maamba Collieries limited. The plant will be producing about 300 mega watts
into the main grid.
Electricity production and producers. There is a trend of emerging small scale energy
producers in the form of solar and other renewable sources. Of course this is a fast growing
phenomenon in the city but is posed with a lot of challenges.
Hydro
96%
Hydrocarbon
4%
Zambia electricity generation by source

The main challenges
Demographic challenges. About 50% of the world’s 7 billion people are now urban dwellers.
However, the development of infrastructure in cities and towns all over the developing world
has been outstripped by the rapid rate of urbanization resulting in the proliferation of informal
settlements in densely populated areas. Such settlements pose serious challenges for the
economic, social and environmental sustainability of cities (UN-Habita, 2011). Lusaka
experiences unreliable power supply. People have little access to affordable energy and rely
on polluting source of energy like charcoal. The population of Lusaka City is over 2.1 million
people (Census, 2010). The city has undergone an explosive population growth since the
1990’s when it had around 769,000 inhabitants (C.W., Nkhuwa, 2012). This population
explosion has proved to be a pressing demographic challenge in the management of urban
energy electricity systems. In Zambia where urbanization is relatively high (42%) and its
primary city Lusaka accounts for close to 10% of the total population,35 this view is
compelling (census,2010).
Figure 3: Population trend in Lusaka since 1964 to 2010
Source: C.W., Nkhuwa, 2012
Technological challenges. In 2013, the city experienced several technical challenges on its
energy infrastructure in providing electricity to the increasing population. Firstly, there was a
serious problem of load shedding, which is referred to as load sharing or equitable
distribution of power to each and every connected customer in the city, (ZESCO, 2014).
Across Zambia, what has been experienced over the last few years is that the electricity
demand has increased and yet the amount of power that is produced remained stagnant for
over 40 years and the population has grown to over 13 million. Secondly, the Lusaka
electricity infrastructure has been faced with frequent voltage collapses. This is due to the
fact that most of the power is generated in the Southern part of the country and taken up to
the copperbelt province through Lusaka. Within Lusaka’s areas around Water Works and
Roma, transformers are aging and they tend to be overloaded frequently.
Socio-economic challenges. The other problem faced by city urban energy managers is the
issue of encroachments on the transmission lines. Because of lack of affordable housing and
accessibility to land by most of the urban slum habitats, people see the way-leaves as bare
land where they can move and start building structures and so on. In some cases these
infrastructures are being vandalised. The service provider is working in collaboration with

stakeholders in the law enforcement agencies and in addition conducting more educational
awareness about safeguarding the energy infrastructures by the community.
Financial challenge. Financial challenge is related to the limited availability of financial
resources to operate and develop urban infrastructure systems (MOOC,2016).In the case of
Lusaka case, establishing an institutional framework capable of ensuring a revenue stream
to sustainably support the operation and maintenance of the energy infrastructure, is
equally a challenge the urban infrastructure managers should address. In Lusaka, illegal
connections are a huge problem despite the energy operating company having an
inspectorate on the ground.
The environmental challenges. Environmental challenges and especially climate change put
pressure on urban electricity managers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to mitigate
the effects of climate change (IGLUS, 2016).Lusaka city managers are not exceptional in
this matter.
Lusaka is already facing direct risks from climate change which are accentuating existing
developmental challenges (Fractal, 2012). In order to isolate the key economic decisions
that will dictate Lusaka’s future resilience to climate change, it is important both to
understand how climate change risks manifest themselves and how they interact with
institutional decision making frameworks at the city scale.
“Climate change has become a reality and is affecting our day-to-day lives. It affected the
timing, distribution and amounts of rainfall last season that adversely affected our agricultural
sector and weakened our capacity to generate sufficient electric power,” (Lusaka
Times,2016), Minister of Finance Alexander Chikwanda said when he presented the 2016
national budget to Parliament in Lusaka..
In order to make Lusaka a resilient city in terms of energy management, the city energy
infrastructure managers are tasked to focus their efforts in operations and maintenance of
the electricity grid and look into the issues of customer relations to mention a few. These
managers will face difficulties, but their critical role is to identify measures to make the city
sustainable, efficient and most importantly resilient. It is evident that urban management
tasks are becoming complex for the city managers which is creating challenges and
opportunities in the urban electricity systems management.
Opportunities and measures
The role of information and technology. Lusaka energy infrastructure management has
embraced information and technology (ITC) as a key feature in its urban electricity system.
This has been seen to bring about a couple of opportunities to enhance energy efficiency of
the grid. Lusaka energy infrastructure management are committed to developing better
communication with their stakeholder customers and offer a superior service. This has
resulted in ZESCO to recently acquire a new product called the Distribution Management
System .This will introduce a lot of automation such as radio lines which lead to many people
being affected when there is a problem and that is one way to improve the quality of service.
The economic dimension of urban infrastructure management. This is concerned with
efficiency, profitability, and subsidies. In this case, ZESCO Limited, the supplier of electricity
in Lusaka has been running profitably. ZESCO has recently introduced Time Of Use (TOU)
Tariff, offering a 50% reduction in demand charges and 25% reduction in energy charges for
electricity consumption during off peak periods. These interventions are giving industrial and

agricultural customers incentives during the off peak period. This enables most industrial and
agricultural customers to shift their consumption to night time which is not only cheaper for
the customer, but also does not exert pressure on generation.
Enhance measures to increase share of renewable energy. Lusaka city urban energy
infrastructure is committed to the Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) Strategy, a policy measure by the
government of Zambia with the help of SATH and USAID to promote investment in
renewable energy. The strategy aims at implementing at least 200MW from renewable
energy in the next 3 years. This means, 100MW from hydro up to 20MW and 100MW from
non-hydro, mainly solar (Lungu.2015).
Reducing consumption through energy saving practices. ZESCO has recently introduced
Time Of Use (TOU) Tariff, offering a 50% reduction in demand charges and 25% reduction
in energy charges for electricity consumption during off peak periods. These interventions
are giving industrial and agricultural customers incentives during the off peak period. This
enables most industrial and an agricultural customer to shift their consumption to night time
which is not only cheaper for the customer, but also does not exert pressure on generation.
This facility has advantages such as efficient utilisation of the generation resources as it tries
to flatten the load curve. The facility also helps to reduce bills through inceptives to the
customers (ZESCO, 2014).
New electricity infrastructure development. This measure has been taken in order to replace
aging facilities and construct one ones. The loadsheding exercises have given the urban
infrastructure managers a huge opportunity to bridge the electricity supply gap. So city
management are committed to building new power stations. This has seen ZESCO to
partner with the World Bank in a Financial PPP arrangement to build a new 132KV ring
around Lusaka.
Enhancing climate resilience in energy and water infrastructure. Ministry of Energy and
Water Development (MEWD) – MEWD is responsible for promoting sustainable
development and management of energy and water resources to enhance national socio-
economic development. Zambia’s updated Sixth National Development Plan 2013-16
(SNDP)69 includes the building of climate resilient energy and water infrastructure,
illustrating that MEWD is integrating building of climate resilience at a strategic planning level
(Fractal,2016).
Environmental sustainability. The case illustrate that the energy urban infrastructure need to
operate efficiently by ensuring that all energy sources are produced, transported, stored
and utilised in an environmentally friendly manner. Lusaka case is committed to the policy
measures that are aimed to address issues that include: the reduced consumption of wood
fuel, increasing utilisation of renewable energy sources, reduction of Green House Gas
(GHG) emissions from the energy sector and promotion of sustainable city energy
management (National energy policy, 2008).
Availability of bioenergy policy and regulatory framework. The revised energy policy
incorporates biofuels.This includes;
i. Existence of Statutory Instrument (SI 42) which legalizes biofuels in the national
energy mix;
ii. Planned Blending Ratios, 5% biodiesel into diesel and 10% bioethanol into
petrol/gasoline.
iii. Liquid biofuels standards ZS E100 (for bioethanol) and ZS B100 (for biodiesel).

The role of energy efficiency and renewable energy use. Efforts have been seen in
considering these two issues as the twin pillars of a sustainable energy policy and that their
co-current development could lead to reduced carbon emissions. Energy efficiency could
result in increased access, reduction of costs and greenhouse gases emission and could
help enhance national security. The government, the main stakeholder in the governance of
the energy infrastructure has taken such measures as, introducing tax incentives on
importation of energy efficiency equipment and supporting promotion of biomass cook
stoves and other clean stoves. Solar energy usage is also promoted.
Existing policy, legal and institutional framework. The following illustrates the policy, legal
and institutional frame work under which the city urban energy infrastructure managers are
working;
 The Ministry of Energy and Water Development (MEWD) oversees policy formulation
and implementation of energy programs including energy efficiency.
 Energy efficiency is under the Energy Management Unit of the department of energy
(DOE).
 Similarly energy efficiency policy is covered under the Energy Management Section
of the National Energy Policy (2008).
 Key features the Energy Efficiency Policy include: public awareness, Energy
Efficiency in buildings, equipment/appliances, training/Capacity building, transport,
standards, fiscal and other incentives, labelling and Audits.
 There is no specific legislation and strategy for implementation energy efficiency.
Commitment to UN Sustainable energy of all. Lusaka is leading the country in the
implementation of the UN Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Initiative to support three
interlinked objectives of; providing universal access to modern energy services, doubling the
global rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and doubling the share of renewable energy
in the global energy mix (ZIEC,2016).
Renewable Sources of Energy. Renewable energy sources are increasingly being used but
still remain insignificant in terms of contribution to the total national energy supply. In Lusaka
potential renewable energy sources include the following: solar (thermal and photovoltaic);
mini/micro hydro; biomass (agricultural wastes, forestry waste, industrial/municipal organic
wastes, energy crops & products and animal waste); Geothermal, and wind. These sources
have great potential for electricity production and use in many sectors. (National energy
policy, 2008). Availability and utilisation of renewable sources in Zambia is illustrated in the
table below.

Renewable
Energy Source
Opportunities/Use Resource
Availability
Potential Energy
Output
Solar Thermal (water
heating), Electricity
(water pumping,
lighting, refrigeration)
68
sunshine
hours per day
5.5 kWh/m2/day
(modest potential
especially for limited
irrigation)
Wind Electricity,
Mechanical
(water pumping)
Average 2.5m/s Good potential,
especially for
irrigation
Microhydro Small grids for
electricity supply
Reasonably
extensive
Requires elaboration
and quantification
Biomass
(combustion and
Gasification)
Electricity generation Agro wastes
Forest wastes
Sawmill wastes
and quantification
Biomass
(biomethanation)
Electricity generation
Heating and cooking
Animal waste
Municipal and
Industrial waste
Waste water
Potential requires
elaboration
Biomass
(extraction,
processing for
transport)
Ethanol for blending
with gasoline to
replace
lead as octane
enhancer
Biodiesel as a blend
or
in stationary engines
Sugarcane
Sweet sorghum
Jatropha
and quantification
Biomass
(for household
energy)
Improved charcoal
production
Improved biomass
stove
Sawmill wastes
and indigenous
trees from
sustainable
forest
management
Reasonably
extensive
Geothermal Electricity generation Hot springs Requires elaboration
and quantification
Table 1: Availability and utilisation of renewable sources in Zambia
Adapted from: Centre for Energy, Environment and Engineering (Z) Limited, 2004
Conclusion
Making Lusaka a resilient city though diversification of the energy mix has been seen as a
sustainable trajectory to take because the city is so vulnerable mainly to climate change and
the population explosion that has taken place over a few years. The city urban energy
infrastructure managers are considering all avenues to alleviate the challenges in short and
long term to achieve continued economic growth and sustenance of the current environment.
Lusaka is undertaking concerted efforts to diversify the power sector and ensure that the city
achieve a climate resilient energy sector. By analysing the current scenario of the city, the
challenges and opportunities available, the significance of acceralating sustainable
transformation of the city energy infrastructure is now well understood. Lusaka city has
proved to have the potential to face the prevailing challenges radically and transition into a
resilient and smart city.

References
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htt://www.arup.com
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resilient power sector.
 Haanyika, M.2016; potential, opportunities and role of energy efficiency in Zambia.
Presentation at ZIEC 2016, Lusaka.
 Kalumiana O.S.2016.Measures to diversify the power sector in Zambia. Presentation at
ZIEC 2016, Lusaka.
 Lungu, H, 2015.Regulatory framework for renewable energy sector in Zambia.
Presentation at ZIEC, 2016, Lusaka.
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Lusaka.
 Shell Foundation, 2014. Accelerating access to energy. Available at
www.shellfoundation.org
 Sasa C, 2016.Development of power projects. Presentation at ZIEC, 2016, Lusaka.
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2016.
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 Zambia Africa economic outlook,2014.Available at http://www.afdb
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http://sitesources.worlbank.org/inzambia/sndpfinaldraft2011pdf.
 Tembo A, 2015.Master thesis. An investigation into policy and leadership practice affecting
sustainable energy development in Zambia
 Lusaka City, 2008.State of the environment report. Available at http://www.lcc.gov.zm
 http://www.lusakatimes.com/2016/energy_crisis_in_the_region_chikwanda/
 http://www.zambia_invest.com/energy/7/9/16
 http://www.daily_mail.co.zm/9/16
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lusaka/1/9/2016
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 http://www.lcc.gov/lusakahistory/7/9/2016
 http://Uk.zambians.co.uk/top_10_african_cities/7/9/2016
 http://zambiaopendataforafrica.org
 www.zda.org
 UN-Habitat, 2007.Lusaka urban sector profile.
 National energy policy, 2008.Lusaka.
 Nkhuwa C 2012.Groundwater at risk. University of Zambia School of mines.

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