The Sunday Mail
Richard Muponde
ALL six power generation units at the Hwange Power Station will undergo extensive refurbishment geared to restore the station to its full generation capacity next year.
The Government has set in motion a multi-million-dollar plan to procure new turbines, generators and boilers for the units which frequently breakdown.
The breakdowns at Hwange and the ongoing rehabilitation of the Kariba Dam have prompted depressed power generation during the second half of this year, triggering nationwide power shortages.
Hwange has an installed capacity of generating 920 megawatts, but is currently producing only 242MW on account of the defective units. In addition, Kariba is currently generating 979MW against an installed capacity of 1 050MW. A region-wide power deficit has hampered power utility zesa’s capacity to import power from its regional peers.
In an interview, Minister of Energy and Power Development Zhemu Soda said the Government plans to upscale domestic generation as a medium-term solution to the power crunch. He said equipment at Hwange’s six units is antiquated and needs to be replaced. “Beginning next year we are going to start refurbishing them (the units),” he said.
“You know the installed capacity is 920MW. So we are going to bring in turbines, generators, boilers and other equipment so that we restore the installed capacity of 920MW.
“After that we can guarantee our people that load-shedding is over.”
Minister Soda said in the short term, the Government was actively pursuing power imports from countries generating excess electricity in the region.
“We are making efforts to make sure that the country will have electricity during the festive season by importing power from Zambia and Mozambique from their excess generation. We are also busy with our two units at Hwange, but we don’t intend to commission them this year.
“This is the intervention that Government has made to make sure that there will be no load shedding because we will be generating our own power and not rely on outsourcing. I think you are aware that our traditional suppliers, South Africa and Zambia have been facing power shortages and had load shedding regimes.”
He said currently the Government cannot guarantee that there will be no load shedding during the festive season.
“Mind you it’s up to them to say we have excess power in so much and we can give you so much. We can only guarantee our people after we start to generate enough power at the Hwange Power Station Units that are being worked on. So the Ministry and zesa are working frantically to make sure that we get power for the festive season.” zesa has been generating around 1 000MW against a national demand of 2 030MW. zesa will invest US$7,1 billion into power generation over the next few years.
Part of the investment will go towards refurbishing ageing equipment at the country’s major power stations.
