Reduced Load Shedding During School Holidays, Festive Season - Minister
Energy and Power Development Minister Edgar Moyo has said Hwange Thermal Power Station’s Unit 7 is expected to start feeding power to the grid any time from today after undergoing Class C Maintenance for the past month.
Class C Maintenance statutory procedure that requires the plant to be taken off the grid after running for a defined period.
Following the shutting down of Unit 7, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), has been implementing load shedding due to reduced power generation.
Responding to questions from journalists at the Dubai Expo Centre where he is attending the 28th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates, Minister Moyo said Unit 8 is also expected to undergo Class C Maintenance. He said:
Unit 7 was taken out for Class C class maintenance for 30 days and those 30 days elapse today (Thursday) and then the process of bringing it back may last one or two more days from today. So we expect Unit 7 to be back to service very soon within a day or two.
Unit 7 carries 305 MW, which is going to be significant in reducing our load-shedding schedule at the moment but going forward in about a week or so, Unit 8 is also going to be taken out for scheduled maintenance for another 30 days.
It’s general maintenance and comes in after certain periods or hours of service.
But then we have other units that have been serviced and carry over 100MW which is going to come to service.
So the taking out of Unit 8 at this time of the year is very strategic because schools and factories are closing and the electricity demand will be coming down.
So we think the effect of taking out Unit 8 is not going to be very adverse and is going to come back in early January after 30 days and that is going to help catch up with demand after schools and industry would have opened.
Moyo urged Zimbabweans to diversify their power and energy sources at the household level and invest in solar energy and gas as the country builds on its capacity to generate power.
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