Electricity restored to southern Mozambique

Maputo, 9 Dec (AIM) – Mozambique’s publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, has announced the restoration of normal power supplies to the southern provinces, after reaching an agreement with supporters of fugitive presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane.

On Saturday a group of pro-Mondlane rioters went to the Ressano Garcia and Gigawatt power stations, both near the border with South Africa, and demanded the total stoppage of power generation.

EDM saw no alternative but to accept the demand. “Fearing unexpected consequences, both the Ressano Garcia and Gigawatt stations were forced to interrupt the production of electricity, a total of about 250 megawatts, for an indeterminate period”, an EDM Saturday release said.

This forced EDM to introduce a regime of rotating power cuts. In one part of central Maputo, the power cut on Sunday lasted for about seven hours.

EDM now says that it has reached “consensus” with the pro-Mondlane demonstrators, allowing the company to resume the generation of electricity at the Gigawatt and Ressano Garcia stations, and to normalise power supplies throughout the southern provinces.

EDM promises to continue monitoring the situation closely, and urged members of the public to guarantee protection of electricity infrastructures.

The shutdown of the two power stations hit Mozambique’s sale of electricity to Zambia. EDM warned its Zambian counterpart, Zesco, that it could lose up to 300 megawatts, normally supplied via the Mozambican network.

Zesco was obliged to introduce “emergency load management measures” and was unable to guarantee its customers the scheduled seven hours of power a day.

Zambia was already facing a serious hydropower generation deficit, arising from the drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
(AIM)
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