The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in South Central Africa, most of which belong to plateau areas. It borders the Democratic Republic of Congo in the north, Tanzania in the northeast, Malawi in the East, Mozambique in the southeast, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia in the south, and Angola in the West. As of 2018, Zambia has a total population of 17.3518 million, including a total rural population of 9.8001 million. Among them, the rural power supply (accounting for the percentage of rural population) is 14%, and about 8.4281 million rural people do not have access to electricity; The urban power supply (as a percentage of the urban population) is 75.20%, and about 1872800 urban people do not have access to electricity. Zambia's population without electricity reached 10.3009 million, accounting for about 59.37% of the total population. (data from the World Bank)
Affected by the global epidemic, the power transmission and distribution industry has great uncertainty. The data in this paper is based on the customs data in the past few years and the view of Martin, an economic analyst of HENGFENGSHUAI ELECTRIC.
1. Introduction to Zambia power transmission and Transformation Company
There are three major power companies in Zambia: Zambia power supply company (zesco) transmits power to most parts of the country through the national grid; Zambia copper belt energy company (CEC), which mainly supplies power to mining areas in copper belt province; Lusemfywa electricity company is mainly responsible for the power supply of Zambia's central province. Zambia is rich in hydropower resources, with a power generation capacity of 6000 MW. The installed capacity in 2016 was 2742 MW. Hydropower accounts for 97% of the country's total installed capacity and 99% of the total power generation. Managed by zesco. There are three large hydropower stations on the North Bank of Kariba lake, Victoria Falls and Kafue Canyon, as well as some small hydropower stations.
2. Source of power generation
Hydropower is the largest source of electricity in Zambia, accounting for 97% of the total power generation in the country. In recent years, with the large investment in the construction of photovoltaic power stations, the proportion of solar power generation in Zambia has increased significantly. In fact, Zambia's power demand is growing at an average annual rate of 3%, and its rapidly developing economic pillar industry - mining industry also needs sufficient power support (which will increase the demand for distribution equipment such as mining
transformers). The Zambian government also hopes to cover 91% of urban areas and 51% of rural areas by 2030. These demands and visions fall into a bottleneck due to their backward economy and insufficient investment in hydropower industry.
3. Analysis on China's export of power transmission and distribution equipment to Zambia
In 2019, the top five countries in terms of the amount of overseas complete power engineering projects accepted and declared by China Chamber of electrical and mechanical commerce were Iraq (US $8.35 billion, accounting for 11.6%), Vietnam (US $7.117 billion, 9.9%), Pakistan (US $4.71 billion, 6.6%), Zambia (US $4.01 billion, 5.6%) and Turkey (US $3.92 billion, 5.4%). There were 7 markets with a total amount of more than US $3.5 billion and 22 markets with a total amount of more than US $1 billion. Iraq, Zambia, Pakistan, Mozambique, Chile and other markets have large-scale projects with a single unit of more than US $2 billion. From January to October 2019, the total value of commodity trade of China's export of power transmission and distribution equipment (except insulators) to Zambia was about 293 million yuan. In 2018, China's export of Zambia's power transmission and distribution equipment (except insulators) was about 297 million yuan, accounting for about 37.5% of Zambia's import of this product, that is, about 790 million yuan of Zambia's power transmission and distribution equipment in 2018 (data from Chinese customs).
In conclusion, with the global in-depth development of the "the Belt and Road" initiative, more and more countries and organizations participate in it, and the industries involved have also expanded from infrastructure construction to various industries required for local development. In this context, Zambia has also entered a new stage of development. HENGFENGSHUAI ELECTRIC believes that the power distribution equipment market in the country will develop at a faster speed in the future. Here, we look forward to more Chinese enterprises participating in it.
