The Sunday Mail
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) Bulawayo power station will miss its scheduled deadline for reopening as repairs are still underway.
The power station was closed a fortnight ago.
In a statement, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) said the station, which shut down due a boiler malfunction resulting in the failure to operate to power generation standards which resulted in the subsequent closure, was set to re-open on Thursday.
“The station was shut down a fortnight ago due to insufficient boiler plant and we immediately began repairing works.”
The plant was expected to be back on full operational capacity last week Thursday.
Contacted for comment on the state of the plant, ZESA spokesperson Fullard Gwasira referred the matter to Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) which, however, could not avail a comment on the situation.
According to information obtained from the website, Bulawayo generates an average of 60MW when all units are functioning well, however, due to the faulty boiler it has since been supplying an average of 18MW due to low performance of machinery.
As of June 26, the Bulawayo power station was the only non-functioning plant as all the country’s five stations were operating at standard capacity.
The Kariba plant, which is the biggest, generates 700 megawatts, followed by the Hwange power station at 575 megawatts.
These are followed by Harare, Munyati and lastly Bulawayo as in their power generation order.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZEDTC) general manager (Harare region), Peter Nyandiya, last week said the Harare power station will be shut down today resulting in the blackout of Chitungwiza and surrounding parts.
“Electricity supply will be interrupted in Chitungwiza and surrounding areas on Sunday 29 June 2014 from 0700hrs to 1800hrs for the purposes of carrying out critical maintenance works,” said Nyandiya in a statement.
Mr Nyandiya also advised all ZESA customers to treat all circuits as live during this period.
This is part of routine maintenance work, with the exception of the Bulawayo plant, on all the power stations countrywide.
Hwange power station was recently shut down due to boilers which were not functioning well leading the power station to supply insufficient power.
Munyati power station has also been supplying an average of 18MW against 60MW it is expected to supply.
Earlier this year Kariba power station went under refurbishment as many of its units were not functioning well.
All ZESA power stations have been supplying an average of 1300MW against the average of 2200MW needed in the country per day due to breakdown of stations’ units hence leading to massive load shedding.
