Zambia is scheduled to start exporting electricity to Namibia by June this year when a power line currently under construction is commissioned, the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) said here Friday.

Alvin Moonga, the company's director of engineering said most of the work on both the transmission line and upgrading of the capacity at the Victoria Falls power station where hydropower is generated has been done.

"The construction of the power line was necessitated by increase in demand in Katima Mulilo town in Namibia and we believe that this project would make ZESCO's surplus power and energy available to Namibia," Moonga told journalists at the company's quarterly briefing.

"We are currently increasing the generation capacity at the Victoria Falls power station so that we can have enough electricity for export," he added.

Currently the installed capacity at the power station is 1,700 megawatts and with the rehabilitation and upgrading works, this will be increased to 1,910 megawatts. About 1,300 megawatts of electricity from the power station will be used in Zambia leaving a surplus of 610 megawatts for export.

The construction work, which started in May last year, involves the construction of a 230 km transmission line from Victoria Falls power station to Sesheke districts on the border with Namibia.

The total cost of the project is estimated at 13.5 million U.S. dollars with 7 million dollars coming from the African Development Bank and 2 million dollars from the Development Bank of Southern Africa while ZESCO is contributing about 4.5 million dollars.

The project was originally proposed in 1991 when the two countries carried out a feasibility study.

It is also part of the regional interconnection project and is being done in conjunction with the Namibian Power Company ( Nampower), which is financing the construction work from the border into Namibia at a cost of 3 million dollars.

Source: Xinhua