ZESA Commences Hwange Units 1 To 6 Refurbishment

In 2022, the Government secured a US$310 million loan from India’s Export and Import Bank to fund an extensive overhaul of Units 1-6 at Hwange.

The funds for the project, however, are yet to be released.

In an interview, with The Sunday Mail, ZESA consultant Cletus Nyachowe said the power utility was using its funds to kickstart the project. Nyachowe said:

To enable the disbursement of the US$310 million, the lenders would like to know the exact scope of the work that needs to be done, and that comes in the form of a detailed project report (DPR).

So, ZESA, together with our consultant, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), have produced that DPR which has been submitted to the financiers and they are looking at that report.

As ZESA and ZPC, we have been proactive; even before the disbursement of that US$310 million, we have started the refurbishment programme with Unit 5 already undergoing an overhaul.

Work has already started using our internal resources and we should be through with the first unit during the third quarter of 2024.

He added that ZESA will decommission one Unit at a time for refurbishment. Said Nyachowe:

It will take an average of five to six months to refurbish each unit over a period of five to six years.

So, you can see it is quite an extensive project, which will not be finished in the short-term, but will proceed over five to six years.

The refurbishment of the six units, which were commissioned between 1983 and 1987, is expected to restore generation capacity to about 9 00MW.

Combined with the two new units, Hwange would then have an installed capacity of more than 1 400MW, making it the biggest power plant in the country.

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