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Zambia · electricity network

Zambia power grid

OverWatts maps 5,098 km of Zambia's electricity transmission network across 114 line segments and 22 substations, the 55th most-mapped grid of 153 countries. Its backbone is high voltage (220–379 kV), carrying 5,098 km — 100% of the mapped length, with the highest tagged voltage at 330 kV. That works out to 6.8 km per 1,000 km² of land — partial OpenStreetMap coverage, ahead of 24% of mapped countries. It is connected to 4 neighbouring grids by 2,777 MW of existing cross-border transfer capacity, with a further 1,600 MW planned.

Open the grid lens →Zambia profile →
5,098 km
Mapped transmission line
22
Substations
#55
of 153 mapped grids
2.8 GW
cross-border · 4 neighbours
330 kV
Highest voltage

OpenStreetMap coverage

Partial6.8 km / 1,000 km²ahead of 24% of 153 mapped countries

This grades how completely OpenStreetMap has drawn Zambia's network — not how much network exists. Large, sparsely-populated countries score low for geographic reasons alone, and every kilometre here is mapped length, so the totals are a floor rather than an operator-reported figure. 6% of segments carry a real line name and 4% an operator tag.

Mapped line length by voltage

114 segments · a segment is credited to the country containing its midpoint, so a border-crossing line counts once, on one side.

Cross-border links from Zambia

2.8 GW existing · 1.6 GW planned · capacities from the Global Transmission Database v0.1 (CC BY 4.0), existing as of 2023

On the interactive map

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Load against the network

4.6 GW
Operating generation
232
km of line per substation
6.8
km per 1,000 km²

Where there is room to connect a new load depends on published hosting capacity, which most operators release only as their own map. OverWatts does not yet ingest those feeds, so these are the density measures the open data supports — generation and mapped demand against mapped network — not a headroom figure.

Operators tagged on Zambia's network

Segment counts from OSM `operator` tags, merged across spellings. Present on 4% of segments — this ranks who is recorded, not market share.

How Zambia compares · mapped grid by country

Frequently asked

How big is Zambia's transmission network?
OverWatts maps 5,098 km of transmission line in Zambia, across 114 segments, plus 22 substations. This is mapped length from OpenStreetMap, not an operator-reported total — where OSM is incomplete the figure is a floor, never a ceiling.
What voltage is Zambia's grid?
Most of the mapped network is high voltage (220–379 kV): 5,098 km of 5,098 km. The highest voltage tagged anywhere in the country is 330 kV.
How complete is the grid map for Zambia?
Partial — 6.8 km of mapped line per 1,000 km² of land, ahead of 24% of the 153 countries with any mapped grid. Coverage grades how completely OpenStreetMap has drawn the network, not how much network exists; large, sparsely-populated countries score low for geographic reasons alone.
Who operates the grid in Zambia?
Zesco are tagged as operators on mapped segments. Operator tags are present on 4% of Zambia's segments, so this ranks who is *recorded*, not market share.
What interconnectors connect Zambia to its neighbours?
2,777 MW of cross-border transfer capacity to Zimbabwe, Congo (Kinshasa), Namibia, Botswana, plus 1,600 MW planned. Capacities are from the Global Transmission Database (v1.0, 2023).

Elsewhere in Zambia

Transmission linesSubstationsPower plantsData centres

Network geometry: OpenStreetMap (ODbL) © OpenStreetMap contributors, ingested and measured by OverWatts · derived 2026-07-26. Counts every mapped line of 220 kV and above; the map layer draws the ≥380 kV backbone only, so it shows less than is measured here.