Ramping up generation at thermal power stations and
increasing power imports are among the measures pushed by Government after
Kariba South Power Station, the main power source, had to halve generation by
300MW owing to low water levels in Lake Kariba.
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Speaking after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Secretary for
Energy and Power Development Engineer Gloria Magombo said the authorities were
working tirelessly to contain the gap created by the low water levels at
Kariba.
Zimbabwe is presently facing acute power shortages which
have seen consumers going for long hours, outside the normal load-shedding
periods, without electricity.
The situation, caused initially by frequent breakdowns at
Hwange Thermal Station, has been compounded by the water shortages in Lake
Kariba and the resulting cut back at Kariba South which provides the bulk of
Zimbabwe’s electricity supplies.
The Zambezi River Authority which runs the Kariba Dam,
wrote to the Zimbabwe Power Company last week directing it to stop generating
electricity until at least January, when water levels are expected to have
picked up. This was modified during last week to allow Zesa to generate 300MW,
a major help but still leaving Zimbabwe short and getting half what it was
looking at from Kariba.
“Various measures were reported to Cabinet which have been
put in place to ensure that there is continued power generation and supply
demand gap which has increased due to the loss of the 300MW.
“One of the first strategies is to ensure that the current
units which are generating in Hwange, continue to be maintained and they are
optimised to ensure that they produce an average of 400MW to ensure energy
supply security,” said Eng Magombo.
“Over and above in the long term, over US$400 million was
secured to improve capacity in Bulawayo and Hwange. At Hwange power station,
the life extension project has started with Unit 5 which has been out due
challenges with its turbines earlier this year.
“We have also been ramping up production for the small
thermals in Bulawayo, Harare and Munyati to push them to 45MW. Coal supplies
are currently being expedited and there is a train with over 30 wagons to power
stations to ensure that there is more production.”
She said the new 300MW Hwange Unit 7 was expected to be
synchronised to the system by end of this month, thus further alleviating the
situation and making up the gap from the Kariba cutback.
“Unit 8 is also being developed in parallel and we expect
that it will be commissioned during the first quarter of 2023,” she said.
An additional coal plant at Hwange going through
maintenance should be up soon, thus adding an additional 15 MW to the national
grid as more fuel is supplied.
Eng Magombo said there were a number of mini hydro power
station run by independent power producers that had been running below capacity
but were set to increase generation owing to increased availability of water
due to the recent rains. While it takes some months from the start of the rains
over Southern Africa for runoff from the upper Zambezi basin, where most of the
river water comes from, to reach Kariba, the small hydros are on small rivers
that start flowing more soon after the first falls.
“As the rains are increasing they should be running to
maximum capacity in the next two weeks and should add 15MW to the grid,” she
said.
There were also separate solar projects at Blanket Mine,
Caledonia, Gwanda and another in Guruve.
Eng Magombo said additional imports were also critical in
improving power supply to add on what Zesa was getting from Eskom, South
Africa, EDM and HCB in Mozambique and from Zambia.
“We have an agreement to increase further. While we remain
in this constrained environment, the utility has been advised to increase the
net metering. We have a number of projects which have been implemented by
customers which need to be connected so that they are able to give excess to
the grid,” said Eng Magombo.
Net metering allows Zesa customers with their own power
generation, usually solar, to both sell and buy power. When the customer has a
surplus, such as at midday, they can sell to Zesa and when the sub goes down
and they need inflows, they can buy.
Whowever has sold the least to the other during a month,
Zesa or the customer, pays the other the balance.
In the medium and long term, Government intends to bring in
competitive procurement of 500MW of solar whose feasibility study has since
been completed and announcement will be made during the first quarter next
year, said Eng Magombo.
Several other agreements had been signed with independent
power producers such as Evergreen and Skypower Global for 500MW to be
implemented in phases while Zesa continues to use the rural electricity fund to
extend the national grid.
Responding to queries by independent power producers on
electricity tariffs, Eng Magombo said the tariffs the independents were paid
were approved through a methodology approved by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulating
Authority and were not related to what Zesa was charging its customers when
that extra power was put into the pool from all sources.
“Each project has its bankability study and it comes up
with tariffs which are then submitted for approval and negotiated by the
offtaker either ZETDC or a large user who wants to buy directly from the IPP.
“The Government through the regulator has been supporting
the tariffs for the main offtaker, ZETDC, because if ZETDC is below what the
IPP can sell then the issue of them being paid becomes an issue,” she said.
She said IPPs and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had agreed
on modalities to convert payments to the IPPs into foreign currency to allow
them to repay their loans.
Eng Magombo called for responsible use of electricity both
at domestic and industrial level to save power. Herald
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