In December 2022, Energy Minister Peter Kapala announced the rationing of electricity supply to domestic customers. There was a big drop in Lake Kariba’s water level, which made this decision necessary.

Lake Kariba is used to generate power for both Zimbabwe and Zambia. The drop in the water level was said to be as a result of reduced inflows from the Zambezi river and its tributaries.

The minister said, “the low water level situation in Lake Karibathreatens the power generation from both the Karina North Bank Hydropower station and Karina South Bank Hydropower station”. He also explained that the rationing means that domestic customers will be supplied with six hours of light daily.

A few weeks after the rationing decision, Zambia restored 24-hour electricity to households. Households and companies countrywide will now enjoy 24 hours of power supply without disruption.

The country’s power utility, Zesco Ltd, Managing Director, Victor Mapani said that various measures like upgrading power generation at stations in the country were deployed to bring its power sector back to full functionality. They revamped the Victoria Falls power station to feed about 250MW into the national grid.

Power generation has also been upgraded at two other stations and would increase power generation at Lake Kariba.