The government of Zambia is set to receive USD 500 million from Western Power company for construction of the Ngonye Falls hydropower generation project in Western Province.
The overall objective of the project is to generate clean, dependable and affordable power to deliver to the Zambian national electricity grid. A gross electricity generation will be approximately 830 GW hours per annum which, using an average household consumption of 4,600 kW hours per annum, is sufficient to supply approximately 1,80,000 households.
The power station is a run-of-river hydroelectric plant that will have an installed capacity of around 60 MW and produce at least 300 GWh per year of zero-carbon, renewable base load electricity. The power produced by the plant will be enough to provide basic electricity needs including lighting, refrigeration and television for up to 3,50,000 Zambian households.
The project will involve construction of a barrage across part of the river above the falls which will direct water into a three km canal to a power house with two turbines and generators.
Electricity will be carried by high voltage transmission lines to the ZESCO national grid system at Sesheke where it will be available to serve demand in Western Province and across Zambia. Because the project is run-of-river, it will therefore not involve construction of a large reservoir.