China-built hydropower stations alleviate power shortages in Africa

The Chinese-built Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Station in Zambia was fully commissioned on Friday, following the switching on of its fifth generator.

The power plant, located 90 kilometers south of the Zambian capital of Lusaka, was built by China’s hydropower engineering and construction company Sinohydro and funded by the Export-Import Bank of China.

The commissioning of the plant, which began construction in 2015, adds an additional 750 megawatts of power to the national grid.

The first unit of Uganda’s biggest hydropower station, which was commissioned by the Power Construction Corporation of China, was successfully connected to the Uganda national grid on March 22.

At full capacity, the 600-megawatt Karuma Dam, a part of the Karuma Hydroelectric Power Station, is expected to raise Uganda’s power generation capacity to nearly 1,900 megawatts. It’s expected to save about 1.31 million tonnes of raw coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.48 million tonnes annually, which is equivalent to planting 1.5 million trees.

Both projects are a part of the Belt and Road Initiative, and will help Zambia and Uganda, and neighboring countries alleviate power shortages.

“I used to have problems. If I wanted to watch the news, there would be no electricity. Children wanted to study, no electricity. They wanted to do their homework, my wife wanted to cook, no electricity. But now, after the commissioning, it has come to almost zero percent. We have power all the time. I can watch on the news anytime. They could cook anytime. Those doing homework studies, they would start at anytime. So I really appreciate this commissioning of this power station,” said Cloudas Mtonga, a resident of Zambia.

“Before, we used to experience a lot of power shortages, which caused us a lot of losses for my business, because we use a lot of electrical appliances in the salon. So you would find that we had a lot of losses in terms of money, in terms of customers. But now, thanks to the Sinohydro Kafue Power Station Lower, we are having a lot of customers. We have power,” said Fidelity Sindolo, the owner of a hair salon in Zambia.

(Cover: The Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Station in Zambia. /CMG)