News

Zambia’s Energy Regulation Board was tracking 1,315MW of generation under construction in September, as ministries defended their 2027 spending plans in Lusaka this week. The medium-term plan behind that budget, published on 27 September, puts 10,000MW among its production targets, and comments on its Green Paper close on 9 October.

Sipho Phiri chairs Kwama Energy, which co-developed Ilute, the Zambian solar plant he calls Africa’s first non-recourse merchant power station. Speaking to ENN, he argues that generation is increasingly solved and that Southern Africa is already inside a transmission constraint, with lead times that leave very little room.

Mercuria and Exergy signed a $250 million financing agreement in Lusaka on 25 September, covering generation and transmission projects run by two Exergy subsidiaries. It is among the largest private commitments made to Zambia’s power sector and the commodities group’s first move into the region’s electricity market.

ZESA’s acting chief executive Cletus Nyachowe told Parliament in May that private developers had 635MW under construction and another 730MW closing, enough for 1,365MW of new capacity by December 2026 and an end to imports a year later. The national compact sets out what still has to be built.

Zimplats commissioned 35MW at Selous in August 2024 and has a 45MW second phase under construction at a cost of US$54 million. First Quantum’s Sentinel mine, Eureka’s gold mine, Sable Chemicals and Zambia Sugar appear alongside it on the Zimbabwe-Zambia programme as companies funding their own power.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the Alliance for Renewable Electrification signed a memorandum of understanding in Brussels on Thursday, covering electrification, investment and energy access across a bloc of 21 countries and an industry body representing more than 170 renewable energy companies.

Households, farms and factories with grid-tied solar now feed 118MW into Zimbabwe’s network under net metering, according to ZESA’s acting chief executive. Participants export up to 5MW each and are paid in credits rather than cash, with ZETDC deferring connection fees until March 2027 to draw more of them in.

The US Trade and Development Agency signed an agreement with Anzana Electric Group in New York on Tuesday to fund a feasibility study for hydropower and distribution in Lualaba in the DRC and North-Western Zambia, covering the mines that feed the Lobito Corridor and more than three million residents.