Loading Is Load Shedding On?…
The current status of ZESCO's nationwide load shedding — suspended since June 2026 and tied to Kariba's water level — with the dated history of how it got here.
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For two years, "how much load shedding today" was the most-searched question in Lusaka. That has changed — but a web search today still tends to surface 2024 and 2025 articles about the schedule. This page states the current position plainly, with the date it was last checked, and the Kariba dam figure the whole thing depends on.
Suspended, not abolished — no scheduled outages as of June 2026, but the position is tied directly to Kariba's water level and could change if the dam falls again.
Load shedding is a function of how much water is behind Kariba Dam, which generates most of Zambia's hydropower. The 2024 regional drought collapsed Kariba's output, and ZESCO introduced scheduled outages of 8 hours daily from March 2024, extended to 12 hours from 20 May 2024 — for most Lusaka households, two separate 4-hour blocks spread across the day. In June 2026, ZESCO ruled out a return to nationwide load management "this year or in the foreseeable future", citing stronger hydro, thermal and solar output plus new power-purchase deals. If Kariba's level falls sharply again, scheduled outages are the mechanism ZESCO has used before and could use again — this page is checked periodically rather than continuously, so always confirm anything urgent (an outage affecting your own home right now) with ZESCO directly rather than this page alone.
March 2024
Load shedding reaches 8 hours daily
Kariba's output had collapsed to around 166 MW of 1,080 MW installed capacity as the regional drought deepened, and Kariba North Bank generation was expected to fall to about 214 MW.
20 May 2024
Load shedding extended to 12 hours daily
Implemented in staggered blocks — for most Lusaka residential areas, two separate 4-hour outages spread across the day, while industrial and farming customers typically took one uninterrupted block.
22 June 2026
Kariba reads 482.15 m — 48.09% of usable storage
More than double the 23.47% recorded on the same date a year earlier. The Zambezi River Authority set the 2026 water allocation at 36 billion cubic metres, split 18 billion each between ZESCO and Zimbabwe Power Company.
June 2026
ZESCO rules out a return to nationwide load shedding
Citing improved hydro, thermal and solar generation and deeper independent-power-producer partnerships. 29 generation projects totalling 2,510 MW were under construction for commissioning across 2025–26, with 347 MW already added.
March 2024
Load shedding reaches 8 hours daily
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