Mention the effects of load shedding

It is a known fact that energy drives the economy of the world by enabling processes and activities that support economic development. In fact, its paucity would impend the social-economic growth of a society . According to constrained energy or electricity supply would eventually cripple all government operations and productive systems thus freezing the economy. Electricity shortages are a reality of everyday life in many parts of the world. Even developed countries are no exception to this challenge. However, these events do not usually last for a long time. In developing countries, especially in the continent of Africa, building new generation capacity may take many years and other factors (e.g. drought, civil strife, lack of financing) contributing to power shortages are often not easily resolved . The deficit of electricity supply in the developing countries often results in a high rate of electric power outages, electricity theft and use of wood fuel as an energy substitute.

Load shedding is one of the means to address an electrical energy deficit. It is mainly a supply side intervention to reduce energy consumption in which power is completely cut off from the consumer for a certain period of time. This technique has little active consumer participation. It is often not liked by the consumers as evidenced in. Periods of load shedding are scheduled to balance energy supply and demand. The impact is distributed among a wide base of customers.

Energy efficiency and demand response are among other load management techniques. In these techniques, consumers reduce energy consumption in response to incentives and energy prices. These techniques require decentralized action and are often difficult to implement than load-shedding .

Zambia, a country in Sub-Sahara Africa whose 99.9% electric power production depends on hydro resources is currently experiencing an energy deficit. This is primarily due to insufficient water at the reservoirs of its two major hydro power stations namely Kariba North Bank and Kafue Gorge. According to the ministerial statement , the country has been experiencing an energy deficit due to the low rainfall experienced during the 2014/2015 rainy season. The Engineering Institute of Zambia (EIZ) Report on load shedding conducted in September 2015 indicated that apart from poor rainfall patterns of 2014/2015 rainy seasons other factors such as the spilling of 19.9 billion cubic meters of water from the Kariba North Bank Reservoir in 2011 may also have been a contributing factor.

The supply of electricity to different consumer groups in Zambia is the obligation of the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO). It is the main agency that has been mandated by the government to generate, supply and distribute electricity. In June 2015, arising from the deficit, ZESCO started a stringent load shedding program to reduce energy consumption in order to preserve water behind the dams and avoid a complete shutdown of the generating plant. In this program most residential customers are without electricity nominally eight hours per day. The efficacy of the program at reducing consumption is not apparent, as customers may shift or otherwise adjust their energy use in response to the load shedding.

every society, in order to meet the needs of it's people, has to answer three basic questions:

- what should we produce?

- how should we produce it?

- for whom should we produce it?

this questions must be answered in order to, option b, aid in production decisions.

every country can't produce everything, no matter how rich their land is. it may be a matter of technology, resources or geographical conditions. so, these three questions must be resolved in order to get the most of the production of each land.

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clearcutting reproduces a new even-aged stand by completely removing the mature stand.

clearcutting as a silvicultural treatment has several characteristics:

it causes a sudden environmental change

it removes the seed source from the regeneration area

the configuration of the clearcut may affect seed dispersal

it begins a new rotation

it will eliminate some pests that require forest cover

overall, it temporarily removes the forest cover, transforming the forest community and environment.

clearcutting followed by artificial (seeded or planted) regeneration has several advantages:

we can avoid delay in restocking the site

we can introduce a selected species, seed source, and genotype

we can control arrangement and spacing

we can achieve uniformity in the new stand

we can overcome the problems associated with securing sufficient natural regeneration.

the shelterwood method involves the removal of most of the mature stand at the end of the rotation, but a portion of the mature stand is left standing.   the shelterwood method serves three basic purposes:

to prepare the stand for production of abundant seed

to modify the environment in a way that promotes germination and survival of the selected species

to build up the amount and size of advance regeneration to ensure the prompt restocking of the new stand following overstory removal.

the shelterwood method involves a sequence of 3 cuttings:

preparatory cuttings: make the seed trees more vigorous and set the stage for regeneration. see our thinning page for more information.

establishment/seed cuttings: open up enough vacant growing space to allow establishment of the new regeneration.

removal cuttings: uncover the new crop to allow it to fill the growing space.

the residual trees in the shelterwood must:

be sturdy and windfirm

be able to survive exposure

flower and reproduce seed

be the best trees of the mature stand

keep in mind that the shelter trees must not occupy the entire site.   a void must be created in order to make room for the new regeneration. the amount of shelter to leave will depend on the following factors:

species characteristics (seeding and shelter requirements)

the number of cuttings in the cutting sequence (1, 2, or 3)

landowner objectives

the size of the area to be regenerated

the final removal harvest level required to be profitable

the shelter must be removed before it impedes the growth of the new stand or threatens its survival.