Africa’s second largest copper producer experienced a power outage on Tuesday night which affected eight of the country’s 10 provinces due to a disturbance on its power supply system.
The Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) said the power outage did not cripple major mining operations because the company quickly switched on its gas turbine power generators to supply emergency support to the mines.
Muntanga Sibalwa, the company’s acting senior manager for corporate communications said in a statement that the firm also had to get emergency support from SNEL, the power utility in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), to ensure that mines remained operating.
The power outage, which is a repeat of a similar blackout on Dec. 11, occurred due to a disturbance caused by the failure of a reserve bus bar isolator on a substation in Lusaka, the country’s capital which triggered the tripping of two major power stations, Kafue Gorge and Kariba North Bank power stations, according to preliminary investigations by power utility, Zesco Limited. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
