Following the successful synchronisation of Unit 7 last month,
Zesa Holdings recently announced a reduction in load shedding in response to
the rising domestic power generation capacity, which has seen the country
surpassing 1 000MW total output from the lowest of about 300MW in February this
year.
Addressing journalists at the Zimbabwe International Trade
Fair in Bulawayo on Friday, Minister of Energy and Power Development Cde Soda
Zhemu announced that Unit 8 was ready and affirmed the improvements in power
supply brought about by the coming into full throttle of Hwange Unit 7.
“Hwange Unit 7 has been under construction for quite some
time but it was synchronised onto the national grid on 20 March and is still
undergoing commissioning tests at various performance levels. I am pleased to
announce that on 16 May we will witness the syncronisation of Unit 8 and
getting connected onto the national grid. In June we will have Unit 7 being
available commercially. What it means is that we shall have a constant supply
of 300 megawatts,” he said.
Minister Zhemu also spoke on the positive developments at
Kariba Power Station which almost shut down last year due to low water levels,
but has seen significant increase in power generation of up to an average of
500 megawatts.
“Over and above that you might be aware that last year we
experienced some problems with generations from Kariba, where initially it was
supposed to be a total shut down of the Kariba Power Station, but after
negotiations with our counterparts in Zambia, the power utility was allowed to
generate an average of 250 megawatts.
“As of last week, there has been some technical committee
communications where there has been a review of generation from Kariba which
has increased the generation to an average of 500 megawatts. However, we intend
to increase that in line with the demands for winter wheat production
activities,” he said.
While significant strides are being made towards improving
power generation internally, vandalism continue to cause a headache with the
power utility channeling funds budgeted for other projects towards replacement
of lost equipment. Minister Zhemu said measures have been put in place to put a
stop to various vandalism activities affecting power supply.
“Vandalism is becoming a scourge where Zimbabwe Electricity
Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) are from time to time putting
aside funds to replace transformers and infrastructure that would have been
destroyed by vandals. I am happy that there is a lot that they are doing to
address that challenge.
“They have introduced drones that are traversing their
networks, doing some surveillance and also some that can be launched whenever
there are reports of the network being tempered with. They can launch these and
immediately some information is obtained which can lead to arrests and
prosecution,” he said.
He said Government was also looking at putting in place
legislation which can assist in that space by way of coming up with deterrent
punishments whenever someone is found destroying electricity equipment. The
Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa facilitated the implementation of
the 600MW Hwange expansion project at a cost of US$1.5 billion through a
Chinese loan deal. Sunday News
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