ZIMBABWEAN companies and domestic consumers are feeling the pinch of high costs of back-up power supply after the national power utility, Zesa, announced a 12-hour load-shedding schedule.
Zesa Holdings’ power distribution subsidiary, Zimbabwe
Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) announced that it
will embark on a load-shedding regime while addressing power generation
challenges.
ZETDC attributed the fall in power generation to challenges
at the Hwange Power Station, limited imports and a dam wall rehabilitation at
the Kariba hydroelectric power plant.
The Kariba dam rehabilitation exercise requires two
generators to be taken out daily for 12 hours, a process that affects an
economy.
The facility was recently upgraded at a cost of US$550
million.
According to statistics from Zesa’s investment vehicle, the
country is generating 1 186 megawatts (MW) of electricity. This generation is
against the demand of about 2 000MW.
“The power cuts are obviously disruptive to business and
they came at an unexpected time because we were of the view that the power
supply had stabilised. I think for the past two to three years we have seen
some stability,” Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe president Israel Murefu
told Weekly Digest our sister publication in a phone interview.
“It reduces capacity to produce because power is what
drives industry and if there is no power you cannot produce and if you resort
to generators, they are very expensive and I think there are very few companies
which have got adequate solar backup to compensate for the loss of electricity.
You also need electricity if you are producing at night so it’s very
disruptive,” he said.
He urged Zesa to resolve the power shortfalls quickly and
to keep industry informed on the load-shedding schedule.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries chief executive Sekai
Kuvarika said her organisation was currently carrying out a survey to ascertain
the extent of the power outages.
However, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC)
said companies were feeling the pinch of power outages which are affecting
production.
As a result, some companies were relying on back-up power
supply such as generators and solar, forcing them to cut costs to afford
mitigatory measures.
“We (businesses) are feeling it by companies slowing down
recruitment, slowing down in terms of business confidence, slowing down in
terms of the capacity to continue producing because, it is grinding when you
are not having reliable power 24/7,” ZNCC chief executive Chris Mugaga said.
“Power comes eight hours but the other 16 hours you have no
power, so how do you produce? So, members are obviously bemoaning it.”
He added: “The impact is quite palpable for most companies.
If this is to continue unabated…that is when they will start thinking who can
we scratch?
“Who are we supposed to recruit? And, who are we supposed
to push out of the company? How can we cut costs so that at least we run on
solar? Which means company costs are increasing for our members.
“Our members are not having any appetite to continue
recruiting because already with a skeleton staff we have, and some losing jobs,
we cannot afford to go all out to recruit.
“We still have other unintended challenges like the power
you are talking about, or water.”
Consumers are also feeling the pinch of power blackouts
forcing them to over-stretch their budgets.
In fact, USAid food security arm, Fewsnet says household
food stocks are beginning to run low across the country confirming shrinking
household incomes.
“Across the suburbs, residents are complaining of prolonged
power cuts.
“At household level, most people have been forced to resort
to liquefied petroleum gas, they have been forced to buy candles that they had
already abandoned, some, who had not purchased the solar systems, are now being
forced to prioritise that,” Harare Resident Trust director Precious Shumba
said.
“But we are also hearing that refrigerated foods are
getting bad and they are counting their losses. And in industry, a lot of the
companies have had to kick out workers who are not being productive because of
power shortages.
“The situation is really sad as people are narrating their
ordeals whereby from 5am they have not had electricity after four or five
hours. “The cost of living has gone up about five times in the last four months
and this (power outages) continues to drain the little resources.”
He said consumers wanted Energy and Power Development
minister Zhemu Soda to quickly address the matter. The power shortages come
despite the country having capacity to generate 1 872MW in renewable energy
with an active national renewable energy policy launched last year in March to
govern the harnessing of this energy. Newsday
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