Thursday, 26 October 2023

POWER CUTS SET TO WORSEN

Zesa Holdings has warned Zimbabweans of crippling power cuts for the next 30 days owing to technical faults at the Hwange Power Station and a scheduled maintenance on one the units.

The development has seen Energy and Power Development minister, Edgar Moyo, pleading with independent power producers (IPPs) to intervene to prevent the country from being plunged into total darkness.

Zimbabweans are already battling prolonged load-shedding lasting up to 12 hours per day.

Zesa says it is experiencing depressed generation at the coal-fired Hwange power station owing to technical faults.

“This occurrence has resulted in increased load-shedding. Furthermore, we wish to notify stakeholders that the Hwange Unit 7, which was synchronised in March 2023, is scheduled to undergo Class C maintenance, a statutory procedure that requires the Unit to be taken off the grid after running for a defined period. This work is expected to be completed within 30 days,” the power utility said.

On Tuesday, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) announced new tariff adjustments to help the power utility address outstanding maintenance of the transmission and distribution network that was resulting in numerous faults.

The recent tariff award adjustment translated to a weighted average of 13.28USc/kWh for all customers.

Addressing officials at the energy ministry’s five-day annual strategic plan performance review workshop in Mutare yesterday, Moyo said the power utility needed to focus on reducing losses during transmission. Newsday


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