Reuters: Zambia's state-run power utility is rationing electricity to its vital copper mines because a water weed, introduced from Brazil in the 1990s as a flower, has blocked flows into the biggest hydro power dam. The southern African country, the continent's largest copper producer, is also rationing power supply to manufacturers while domestic users have been cut off and traffic disrupted by the failure of lights, a company official said on Tuesday.The utility company Zesco Ltd.'s spokeswoman, Lucy Zimba, said the aquatic weeds had choked the flow of water into a dam at Kafue Gorge power station, forcing it to halt some generation units and cutting 360 megawatts of Kafue's 990 MW capacity. Zambia has a total generation capacity of 1,600 MW.
"We have had 360 megawatts of power out of our system since May 30 and this has caused major disruptions. It has affected the mines (and) other industries,"" Zimba told Reuters. "We are also carrying out further investigations to see whether it is only the weeds that have caused this little flow of water," she added. Zambia's power supply has been affected by the plant, known as Kafue weed, over the past 10 years….
An open pit at the Nkana mine in Zambia, shot by Per Arne Wilson, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5, Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 and Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 License
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