The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Farawo
Zimbabwe will generate an additional 5 300 megawatts within the next five years and become a net electricity exporter when its power generation projects are complete, the Southern African Power Pool has said. Harare has been upgrading its electricity plants since 2014 as it focuses on power self-sufficiency and contributing supplies to an envisaged continental grid.
Kariba South Hydro Power Station is expected to generate 300 megawatts by March 2018, while Hwange 7 and 8 will produce 600 MW within the next five years.
Harare, Bulawayo and Munyati thermal power stations will also feed into the national power grid once their rehabilitation is complete.
Presently, Zimbabwe generates 1 200MW largely due to obsolete equipment that inhibits optimum output, and often relies on supplementary imports from South Africa and Mozambique.
It is also battling to replace 4 000 electricity transformers that have either been vandalised or destroyed by floods.
According to Sapp’s latest report, the country will generate an extra 120MW and 540MW in 2017 and 2018, respectively; with another 4 640MW projected between 2019 and 2022.
The report says regional powerhouse South Africa will produce an additional 9 757MW by 2022, Zambia 3 348MW, Tanzania 4 080MW, Mozambique 2 900MW, the DRC 2 010 MW and Botswana 720MW.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail last week, Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Undenge said, “The region is expected to generate an additional 32 638MW in the next five years. The bulk of that electricity will be generated in South Africa followed by Zimbabwe at 5 300MW.
“Sapp accounts for (a stored capacity of) 58 000 MW, with the bulk of it being produced in South Africa. The region has a deficit of 6 000MW, but we hope to overcome this problem within the next five years because various projects are currently underway.
“Zimbabwe will be a net exporter of electricity by 2022 because we have various power generation projects that are at various stages.”
Zesa Systems Development Manager and Sapp committee member Mr Ikhupuleng Dube said, “The ultimate idea is to connect the electricity grid from Cape to Cairo and possibly Jordan and other countries. This is a huge project, which we hope to commission by 2019.
“We have five regional power pools in Africa, and Sapp is the strongest. Therefore, we are working with other pools to make this dream a reality.”
In 2016, Sapp members generated a cumulative 4 205MW, with South Africa producing the bulk at 999 MW and Zimbabwe’s Dema diesel plant chipping in with 200MW.
