A power surge on Sunday night caused widespread blackouts in both Zimbabwe and Zambia, plunging the two southern African countries into darkness.
Both nations are already grappling with an ongoing power crisis, largely due to the declining water levels at Lake Kariba, which is a key source of hydroelectric power for both countries.
Zambia’s power utility, ZESCO Limited, confirmed that the system disturbance occurred just after 8 PM on Sunday. Said ZESCO acting managing director Justin Loongo:
ZESCO Limited informs the nation that the country has experienced a power system disturbance today, 24 November 2024 at 20:15 hours leading to loss of power supply that has affected the whole country.
The Corporation is working diligently to resolve the unplanned outage and power supply restoration is underway.
ZESCO will keep the country updated of this unforeseen development.
We regret the unplanned loss of supply and seek our customers’ support and patience.
Zimbabwe’s power utility, ZESA Holdings, also confirmed last night’s “system disturbance” which left the country in darkness. It said:
We regret to advise our valued customers that the national grid experienced a system disturbance last night resulting in a system blackout. Our engineers reacted and began the restoration process.
We are happy to advise that as of this morning, most of the load centres have been picked countrywide. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.
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