WIDER STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION ON THE REVISION OF THE ZAMBIAN WAYLEAVE CODE OF PRACTICE, 2011

The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) hereby invites all the Zambian electricity supply industry stakeholders and the general public to participate in the process of revising the Zambia Wayleave Code of Practice, 2011 (“the Code”) by way of submitting comments or proposing amendments to the current Draft Revised Wayleave Code. Full details are provided in section 1 and 2 as follows:

1. PROCESS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS OR PROPOSING AMENDMENTS

Stakeholders wishing to respond to the consultation should follow the four steps below:

Step 1

Register as a respondent by emailing to the ERB the following message: “[Name of your institution] would like to participate in the consultation process for revising the Wayleave Code of Practice”.

  • Email the message as soon as you decide to participate in the consultation process
  • In your message, include your contact mobile phone number;
  • We are asking stakeholders to register and provide contact details so that if we need to explore your comment or proposal further, we can contact you.

Step 2

Download the draft Revised Wayleave Code and the Response Form.

  • The draft Revised Wayleave Code can be downloaded here: Download;
  • The response form can be downloaded here: Download.

Then, respond to the consultation as described in Step 3 and Step 4 below.

Step 3

Please fill your comments or proposed amendments in the Response Form that you downloaded in Step 2.

The following is a quick guide on how you could use the Response Form to provide your comments:

(a) In the first column of the Response Form, identify the section of the draft Revised Wayleave Code which you want to comment;

(b) In the second column, note the words which you wish to comment on;

(c) Then, if for example, you have correction words or a preferred specification, please insert these in the third column;

(d) Finally, in the fourth column:

     (i) Give reason for your proposed amendment; and/or

     (ii) Describe the issue. If the matter is a minor typographical, punctuation or spelling issue; just use “T”, otherwise explain why you think your words or proposed specifications are better. If you do not want to suggest words or have a totally new suggestion, leave column 3 blank and just explain the issue in the fourth column. 

Step 4

After you complete filling up the Response Form with all your comments or proposed amendments, submit the Form as follows:

  1. Send, to be received no later than 17:00 hours CAT on 22nd April 2022, an officially signed copy of your filled up Response Form to the following ERB office-bearer and postal address:

The Director – Technical Regulation, Energy Regulation Board, Plot No. 9330, Danny Pule Road, Off Alick Nkhata Road, P.O. Box 37631, Lusaka – 10101.

OR

  1. Email, no later than 17:00 hours CAT on 22nd April 2022, your filled up copy of the Response Form to: apolito@erb.org.zm with a copy to: smwiinga@erb.org.zm and hngwale@erb.org.zm

The ERB will reply to all stakeholders who will respond, indicating where changes would have been made to the draft Revised Wayleave Code.

2. TIMELINE

  • Consultation Opens on Friday 11th March 2022.
  • Consultation Closes on Friday 22nd April 2022.
  • An online open session will be held on Thursday 5th May 2022. The ERB will host this three-hour (from 09:30 hours to 12:30 hours) online session with the respondents to briefly discuss submissions that may be open to debate.

3. BACKGROUND

The Wayleave Code of Practice, 2011 (“the Code”) was developed in 2011 by the Safety Liaison Committee (SLC) under the auspices of the ERB a copy of the Code can be downloaded here Download. The SLC was established by the ERB in July 2008. It draws its membership from the Zambian electricity supply industry (ESI) stakeholders including licensees, bulk electricity consumers, statutory engineering regulatory body, academia and government departments.

In order to enhance the protection and safety of consumers of electricity and the general public from the hazards of licensees’ electricity infrastructure, the ERB, in accordance with its mandate by the law in Section 4(m) of the Energy Regulation Act, 2019, facilitated the revision of the Code. The revision process commenced in June 2020 and was spearheaded by a Working Group of members from Lusaka City Council, Road Development Agency, Zambia Information Communication Authority and ZESCO Limited. The Working Group was constituted under the Wayleave Code of Practice Committee (WCPC). The WCPC is actually a sub-committee of the SLC.

The Working Group considered what amendments were needed to the Code for enhancing safety and reliability in the Zambian ESI. Using benchmark data, the Working Group reviewed the technical issues as they relate to the Zambian ESI, and drafted proposed revisions to the Code. Some of the consideration by the Working Group in revising the Code included the need to include a wider range of developers’ structures whose clearances from licensees’ electricity infrastructure should be specified, including underground cables, and specifying the principles for determining the clearances from electricity overhead lines to renewable energy infrastructure such as solar power plants. The Working Group concluded the revision and submitted the draft revised Code to the ERB in December 2021.

It is to the aforementioned draft revised Code that the ERB now invites the wider ESI stakeholders and the general public to propose amendments for inclusion in the final draft revised Code which the ERB will then consider for approval and publication.