LOADSHEDDING being experienced in the country will be a thing of the past in three months’ time as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) is employing a number of measures to ensure there is enough power supply in the country.
President Mnangagwa three months ago directed the Ministry
of Energy and Power Development to come up with measures to end load shedding
within the next two years riding on several interventions and support extended
to the power utility by the Government.
The President said the ongoing implementation of the Hwange
Power Station life extension project and cumulative operationalisation of
mini-hydro, thermal and solar power plants will see the country become energy
secure, self-sufficient and a net exporter of power as he urged the power
utility company to adopt modern technology to curb vandalism, which is
affecting Zesa.
Addressing journalists and Zesa staff during a media tour
of Hwange Power Station yesterday, Zesa board chair Dr Sydney Gata said the
country will be spared load shedding starting in January as some mitigatory
measures being put in place will have started bearing fruits.
The tour was organised by Zesa in partnership with the
Zimbabwe National Editors’ Forum (ZINEF) to give journalists from a cross
section of the private and public media an appreciation of operational work
going on at the power utility.
Dr Gata said the country is also sitting on about 100
independent power producers’ proposals awaiting Government guarantees, which if
operationalised can add 300MW to the grid.
Zesa is also working on getting imports from Zambia and
Mozambique which together with completion of rehabilitation of the Kariba Dam
Plunge Pool and other interventions, will result in adequate supply in the
country.
The country is generating about 1 400MW against a demand of
1 750MW.
As a result, some parts of the country are subjected to
load shedding as Zesa seeks to control usage of power to close the deficit gap.
“When I returned to Zesa, one of my first assignments was
to end load shedding, but there was the biggest of all problems which was low
staff morale. The whole of the first year was devoted to dealing with this as
we invested in staff morale boosting. There were about 600 disputes at
individual and company level, some going back to 2012, and we have reduced
this.
“Going forward, I am not saying we are ending load
shedding, but come January you will see drastic change coming from improved
operations in Hwange and maintenance of the plunge pool, which is nearing end
at Kariba and by December we will be finished with it,” said Dr Gata.
He said Zesa recently signed an agreement with Zambia and
will soon be getting 100MW and another 200MW in January.
Dr Gata said Zambia has excess power as they are currently
commissioning the Kafue power generation project.
“Next month we will pay Cahora Bassa. We owe them US$88
million and we will be paying US$60 million in two weeks and we will get 180MW
that should end load shedding. We have about 100 Independent Power Producers
(IPP) projects which are mostly renewable. If they are given guarantees, we
might have 300MW from IPPs alone,” said Dr Gata. Chronicle
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