Maamba Energy's 300MW expansion nears completion, doubling Zambia's biggest IPP

Maamba Energy Limited, Zambia's largest independent power producer, is nearing completion of a $450 million Phase II expansion that will add 300MW of coal-fired thermal capacity to its existing 300MW plant in Zambia's Southern Province, alongside a further 100MW solar plant that would together lift the company's total capacity to 700MW. The expansion, built as two 150MW thermal units, was targeted for completion around July 2026, roughly 24 months after construction began.

President Hakainde Hichilema has framed the project as central to Zambia's plan to lift installed national electricity capacity toward 10,000MW by 2030, part of a broader push to give the country's growing mining sector and wider economy a more diversified generation base than reliance on Kariba and Kafue hydropower alone. Maamba Energy is majority owned by Nava Bharat (Singapore), with Zambia's state mining investment vehicle ZCCM Investments Holdings holding the remaining stake.

Baseload to complement hydropower

Unlike hydropower, which is vulnerable to drought and seasonal river flow, Maamba's coal-fired units provide climate-independent baseload generation, an attribute Zambia's power planners have valued highly after the severe 2023-24 drought exposed how exposed the country was to Kariba's water levels. The additional 300MW of thermal capacity is expected to create 433 jobs and represents one of the largest single additions to Zambia's generation fleet outside of the state-owned ZESCO system.

Part of a broader capacity build-out

Maamba's expansion is one of 29 public and private-led energy projects, with a combined capacity of around 2,510MW, that Zambia's government has said are under construction or scheduled for commissioning between 2025 and 2026 — the same pipeline ZESCO has cited in declaring the country's power supply situation stable. For Zambian mines that spent years absorbing the cost of load shedding, Maamba reaching 700MW would mark one of the more tangible signs that the country's generation base is finally catching up with the demands of an expanding copper industry. Because Maamba sells much of its output directly into the national grid rather than to a single mining customer, the expansion also spreads its benefit across the wider economy rather than only to whichever company signs an offtake agreement.

Sources

• Efficacy News: Maamba Energy to Become Zambia's 700 MW National Energy Hub by 2026, 16 Oct 2025
• Mining News Zambia: Maamba Energy commence 300 MW Phase II power project, 01 Feb 2026