The Sunday Mail
ELECTRICITY demand in the mining sector is projected to increase by 29 percent to 220 Megawatts as mining houses undertake various expansion projects.
The demand for power in the mining sector comes at a time when all major mining companies have planned expansion projects, which are expected to further increase pressure on electricity.
The Zimbabwe Economic Policy Analysis and Research Unit (ZEPARU) had projected electricity demand to increase by 6,5 percent in 2018, but with new projects on the horizon, demand is expected to go even higher.
Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CMoZ) chief executive Mr Isaac Kwesu recently told The Sunday Mail Business that more new projects will naturally increase power demand in 2018.
“Demand for electricity is anticipated to increase to 220 megawatts in 2018, from 170 megawatts in 2017.
“The projected demand captures planned projects for this year,” said Mr Kwesu.
The increased demand for electricity is also on the back of the beneficiation thrust that miners are undertaking.
The country’s platinum and nickel miners are working on resuscitating their beneficiation machinery, in response to the Government’s call for beneficiation and value addition to derive optimum benefits from minerals, as opposed to exporting them raw. ZEPARU said demand for power will increase in the mining sector despite difficulties in acquiring affordable lines of credit, which may hinder some of the expansion projects in the sector.
If planned projects take off, the national demand for electricity will increase over time, putting pressure at the national power utility provider – Zesa.
However, if Zesa’s planned expansion projects coupled with increase in power supply from independent power producers come to fruition, this may reduce or eliminate the current national electricity deficit in the medium term.
The Zimbabwe Power Company recently embarked on an expansion of Kariba South Hydro Power Station’s units 7 and 8, in a project that will add 300MW to the national grid when complete.
The project is already feeding 150MW of electricity to the national grid while the balance will come on board this year.
Meanwhile, miners are not comfortable with the current power tariffs. They are arguing that the prevailing USc12, 8/KWh is too high and must be reduced to levels less than USc7/KWh.
There is consensus among miners that power constitutes over 13 percent of cost drivers in the mining sector and that more should be done to reduce those costs.
According to the latest mining survey for 2017, mining contributes about 16 percent to Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product and generates over 60 percent of the country’s export earnings.
