We Have Taken Measures To Ease Power Shortage - Govt

The government has put measures in place to ensure that there is continued power generation at various power stations across the country.

This was said by the secretary for Energy and Power Development Gloria Magombo while speaking to the media after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. She said:

Various measures were reported to Cabinet which have been put in place to ensure that there is a 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 optimised to ensure that they produce an average of 400MW to ensure energy supply security.

Over and above in the long term, over US$400 million was secured to improve capacity in Bulawayo and Hwange.

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At Hwange power station, the life-extension project has started with Unit 5 which has been out due to 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.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing an electricity crisis caused by frequent breakdowns at Hwange Thermal Power Station and water shortages in Lake Kariba which supplies water for the Kariba Hydropower station.

Meanwhile, Magombo said the new 300MW Hwange Unit 7 is expected to be synchronised to the system by end of this month. She said:

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 running soon, thus adding an additional 15 MW to the national grid.

According to the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) website, Zimbabwe was generating 494MW on Tuesday, 6 December 2022, against a peak demand of 2 200MW. | The Herald