Moves by Zambia to open its electricity market to third-party access are beginning to reshape regional electricity trading dynamics in Southern Africa, creating new opportunities for private-sector participation in cross-border power flows.
Speaking during a panel discussion on unlocking grid investment at the Africa Energy Indaba in Cape Town recently, Andrew Kamanga, MD of Northwestern Energy Corporation, said Zambia’s introduction of an open access regime had begun shifting the structure of the country’s electricity market.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes in the market,” Kamanga said. “The government introduced the open access regime to ensure power can be moved by those who have it. We’ve also seen the introduction of power traders who’ve come into the market to fill the gap.”
The reforms have effectively allowed electricity to move beyond the traditional vertically integrated utility model, enabling new market participants to trade power across the network.
Kamanga explained that Zambia’s electricity sector now includes public and private actors operating across the value chain with private companies participating in distribution and trading alongside the state-owned utility.
“We run one of the first private electricity distribution companies in Zambia,” he said, referring to Northwestern Energy Corporation, which supplies power to mining townships in the country’s north-western region. “The market is supported by the public and private sectors.”
The shift towards open access is also enabling greater integration with regional electricity markets.
Zambia is already connected to the Southern African Power Pool and further cross-border transmission infrastructure is being developed to expand regional connectivity. Kamanga noted that the planned Zambia-Tanzania interconnector will provide a route linking the Southern African grid with the Eastern African power system.
“The Zambia-Tanzania interconnector will be the route out into the Eastern African connection so that we get connected to the Eastern African power pool,” he said.
Such interconnections are expected to play a key role in facilitating regional electricity trade, particularly as countries increasingly look to import and export power to balance supply and demand across different systems.
However, Kamanga cautioned that expanding cross-border trade will depend heavily on investment in transmission infrastructure and on regulatory frameworks that support private participation.
“For private-sector involvement in transmission projects, you need to have the power available and the tariff needs to be attractive enough to assure bankability,” he said. “Transmission projects are long-term investments and investors need certainty that they will be able to recover their costs.”
Predictable regulatory structures, clear licensing conditions and coordination between neighbouring countries are essential for cross-border transmission projects, he added.
“You need to ensure that land access is guaranteed, regulatory requirements are aligned between the two countries and the tariff framework supports the project,” Kamanga said.
