ZIMBABWE has started exporting electricity to regional
countries especially Namibia, buoyed by increased production at the Kariba
Power Station which came into life in March last year.
President Mnangagwa commissioned Unit 7 and 8, which were
constructed at a cost of $531 million by China’s Sinohydro, resulting in an
additional 300MW into the national grid. The Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has
confirmed that the new project has resulted in the country generating above
target and exporting the excess power to NamPower, Namibia’s power utility
company.
In a statement, ZPC said it surpassed generating targets
for the fourth quarter of 2018 by 32, 67 percent and Kariba Power Station
contributed half of the power. Of the power from Kariba, five percent was
imported to NamPower. According to the latest production updates, that
translates to between 25 and 30 MW per day.
“A total of 2,694.92GWh of energy was achieved in the
fourth quarter of 2018, against a target of 2,031.35GWh. The target for the
period was therefore surpassed by 32.67 percent. Hwange also surpassed its
quarterly target by nine percent due to deferment of Unit 3 major overhaul to
2019. From the energy supply balance, we observed that Kariba Power Station
contributed the most energy with a 50 percent contribution to the total energy
production, and five percent of it was exported to NamPower,” said ZPC in a
power update.
Energy and Power Development Minister Dr Jorum Gumbo
confirmed the exports and added that the country was positioning itself to
become a major power exporter in the region and fill the gap of power shortages
faced by neighbouring countries.
“Throughout the year last year it has not been bad, even
now. We were exporting to NamPower and we were even managing without importing
from Eskom (South Africa), which means it’s good. The electricity outages that
were experienced in various parts of the country at times weren’t because of
shortages, they were caused by faults mainly to do with vandalism of
infrastructure and storms,” he said.
Dr Gumbo said the infrastructural development taking place
in the energy sector, which entails expansion of the power stations as well as
the various projects being undertaken by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) was
likely to see the country exporting more power by 2030.
“The aim is that we want to reach a point that by 2030 we
are aiming to be exporting power thus as a ministry we are working on getting
solar energy on the national grid and putting in place a number of small hydro
power stations such as the one we have earmarked at Tugwi-Mukosi to add power
to the national grid,” he said.
Dr Gumbo said through power exports the country could rake
the much needed foreign currency through exporting power in the region where
the demand is high.
“The whole of Southern Africa can depend on us, if we complete
our various projects. There’s a shortage of power, we are seeing South Africa
doing a lot of electricity load-shedding. That means the market is there. For
instance if projects like Batoka commence, we will be self sufficient as a
country. The future is bright to enable us to export into the region as a
country,” he said.
The proposed Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Power Station is a
1 600 megawatts (MW) hydroelectric power station, planned to be on the Zambezi
River across the international border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Dr Gumbo however, said the water levels in the Zambezi
River have gone down and the situation was likely to impact negatively in the
generation of power at Kariba hydro-power station.
“I think you are aware that water levels at the Zambezi are
very low to the level that we want to ensure that it won’t disrupt our power
generation, thus we will be managing our consumption. We are not getting enough
inflows up the river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the water level is
becoming low and low,” he said. Sunday Mail
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