Zambia is set to begin exporting electricity to Zimbabwe in August, within a power export agreement, according to a senior government official on Tuesday.

State owned power company Zesco will start exporting 100 megawatts of electricity to Zimbabwe as from August, said energy minister, Peter Kapala. 

“This was the same deal I referred to last week as the one where power from Kafue Gorge Lower (power plant) would be exported to Zimbabwe and Namibia through deals signed in the last few months,” he said in a statement. 

Kapala added that Zimbabwe was grappling with an electricity shortage due to depressed degeneration at the country’s power plants, New Zimbabwe reports. 

The agreement reached is for between three and five years, and talks were based on Zimbabwe making US$6.3 million monthly pre-payments for the 100 megawatts of electricity.

In the meantime, Zambia has championed plans by South Africa to import power to meet its requirements.

The energy minister said the initiative will boost the ready market for Zambia’s excess power, going on to say that plans were also in place to link the power grids with Angola. 

In addition, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced his government would contemplate power imports from Zambia to tackle the energy crisis.

The report adds that Zambia recently announced a surplus of 1,156.8 megawatts following the commissioning of four out of five generators at the 750-megawatt Kafue Lower Gorge Power Station.

As it stands, Zambia's current national electricity generation capacity is 3,456.8 megawatts against a peak national demand of approximately 2,300 megawatts.