Zambia hosts Southern African Power Pool executive committee meeting and 20th anniversary celebrations

16 electricity utilities from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), all members of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), will converge in Zambia to deliberate matters pertinent to the present and future state of the regional electricity industry and common power market.

A cooperation of electricity companies drawn from the 12 SADC member countries, the SAPP will also celebrate 20 years of its formation and existence at a ceremony to be held in Lusaka.
Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc (CEC), ZESCO Limited and Lunsemfwa Hydro Power Company will jointly host both the body’s 39th Executive Committee Meeting (EXCO), which is the highest governing organ of the SAPP, and the 20th anniversary celebrations on Thursday, 5 November, 2015.

Zambia, being one of the architects of the formation of the power pool and currently with the highest number of member utilities, recognizes the benefits of hosting these two events as platforms to devise strategies and agree actions to improve not only the availability of power in the region but also the service delivery levels of member utilities, and to also reflect on achievements scored over the past two decades with respect to the regional power market. For Zambia, specifically, the meetings present an opportunity to make known strides being taken to invest in new generating capacity and diversify the country’s energy source mix, and to appreciate the benefits derived from its membership to the common electricity market.

The Minister of Energy and Water Development is expected to grace these events.

About the Southern African Power Pool

The SAPP was created in 1995 as a cooperation of national electricity companies in Southern Africa under the auspices of the SADC. The members of SAPP have created a common power grid among their countries and a common market for electricity in the SADC region. It was created to ensure provision of reliable and economical electricity supply to consumers of each of its members, consistent with the reasonable utilization of natural resources and the effect on the environment.

The SAPP was founded on the recognition that cooperation and integration was important for regional development, in this case, the formation of a common market to promote electricity trading and power pooling. SAPP membership is composed of 12 countries, represented by their respective power utilities, organized through SADC. The member countries are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The SAPP is so far the most formal and most advanced power pool in Africa and has recorded several successes in its 20 years of existence, while serving as a model of well-established power pools on the continent and beyond.

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