The Sunday Mail
Allen Choruma
Vision 2030
An adequate and dependable power supply is essential for the development of the Zimbabwean economy and we must ensure that Zesa can supply theis requirement
Zimbabwe is experiencing huge power deficits, resulting in the public power utility Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) resorting to frequent load shedding.
This has severely crippled activiy in all economic sectors.
Unless the issue of dependable power supply is urgently addressed, the attainment of economic development milestones under Vision 2030 will be seriously crippled.
Reliable and dependable power supply is critical to economic development.
Empirical evidence shows that there is a positive correlation between power supply and economic development.
The disruption in power supply has caused serious inconveniences to domestic, commercial, health, industrial, mining and farming sectors.
Incessant power cuts have drastically affected the conduct of business nationwide to an extent that some operations that require uninterrupted power supplies have shut down or limited the scale of operations.
Other business players have resorted to expensive and unsustainable alternative power sources such as diesel power generation. The health sector has not been spared either.
New energy minister’s task
The newly appointed Minister of Energy and Power Development Advocate Fortune Chasi faces a mammoth task in fixing the crippling energy and power shortages.
Urgent interventions are needed to address these challenges.
What compounds the problem is that all sources of energy and power supplies in Zimbabwe are scarce; be it the supply of diesel, petrol, paraffin and liquefied gas or electricity.
What is perhaps encouraging is that the newly appointed Energy and Power Development Minister Chasi “has the energy in him” and has hit the ground running as he appears to be fully aware of the problems affecting the energy and power sector.
He needs all the support from Government to ensure that the challenges being faced in the energy and power sectors are urgently addressed.
But time is precariously running out.
Minister Chasi will need to restore public confidence that he can sort out the mess in the energy and power sectors.
A comprehensive strategy framework needs to come out in the public domain soon, which clearly shows how the minister intends to tackle the energy and power crisis in Zimbabwe.
We await, with interest, minister Chasi’s issuance of an energy and power blueprint, which should address issues around power generation and tariffs.
Currently, Zimbabwe’s electricity tariffs at 10 cents per kWh are sub-economic, unsustainable and the lowest in the region.
Electricity in Zimbabwe has become so cheap that alternative sources of lighting, for example candles, are way more expensive than electricity.
Minister Chasi has already recognised this anomaly, but he needs to quickly address it to ensure that we have economic tariffs that can sustain the ZESA operations.
Electricity
Turning my attention to electricity, the challenges facing ZESA are mammoth.
Some of these challenges include aged and obsolete equipment, poor state of infrastructure (frequent equipment breakdowns), poor billing and collection of revenue systems, uneconomic low tariffs, operational challenges (under capitalisation compounded by debt ridden financial positions, inadequate specialised skills and tools required for planning and forecasting energy needs) and theft and vandalism of infrastructure by criminals.
Despite the completion of the Kariba South Power Station Project in 2018, which added 300MW to the power plant bringing the total installed capacity generation for Kariba to 1,050 MW, the station is currently the biggest contributor of power in Zimbabwe contributing 65 percent of total electricity.
Kariba is, however, operating below capacity due to low water levels in the dam.
According to Zimbabwe Power Corporation (ZPC), in the first quarter of 2019, the Zambezi Water Authority (ZWA) has reduced water allocation to Kariba station from 19 billion cubic metres to 17 billion cubic meters translating to an average monthly capacity generation of 358 MW.
Hwange Thermal Power Station, the second biggest power supply with an installed capacity of 920 MW is also facing challenges due to antiquated equipment and erratic coal supplies.
The current expansion project being undertaken at Hwange will increase generation by 600 MW to 1 520 MW.
Electricity generation levels
The electricity generation statistics (excluding small private power producers), as at June 18 2019, posted on ZPC website are as follows: Zimbabwe’s power demand stands at around 2 500 MW at peak. Kariba has the biggest generation capacity currently at 1 050 MW following completion of the extension project which added 300 MW to existing 750 MW.
With industry operating at between 25 and 40 percent capacity, our requirement for energy is estimated at 2 500 MW.
Assuming that industry grows its capacity to between 70 and 100 percent in the next five years and that mining and agriculture continue to grow at current paces, the demand for energy in Zimbabwe could double to 5 000 MW.
Power deficit
Zimbabwe requires about 2500 MW of power to meet the current demand.
ZPC electricity generation capacity as of last week was an average 1 200 MW against a demand of around 2 500 MW.
This results in a deficit of 995 MW or 45 percent.
Hwange with an installed capacity of 920 MW is only producing 476 MW, which is 39 percent of national power output as highlighted in the table above.
At times, Hwange produces much lower power due to frequent equipment breakdowns and ZPC statistics shows that Hwange contributes an average 33 percent to the national grid.
With the current expansion projects, which commenced in the last quarter of 2018, Hwange is expected in the next three years to add another 600 MW to the national grid increasing its installed capacity from 920 MW to 1 520 MW.
At the moment, Zimbabwe has to rely on Kariba which, according to ZPC, is contributing 65 percent of power requirements, even at a moment its generation capacity has been severely curtailed by water shortages.
The beauty with Kariba is that it provides clean sustainable energy. If the Batoka Gorge comes on line, in future, Zimbabwe’s bulk power supply will come from water, a sustainable source of energy.
Planning
Our power requirements as we drive towards Vision 20130 need to be addressed urgently through planning and investing more in power generation and distribution.
ZESA needs to be transformed into an efficient and profitable power generation, distribution and billing institution. Alternative sources of energy should also be considered for Zimbabwe.
Unless if ZESA is transformed, restructured and the Government itself invests in the power sector, we may be faced with the same problems that Eskom has created for the South African economy.
Eskom provides 95 percent of South Africa’s power.
It produces about 46 776 MW and its revenue turnover is ZAR 177 billion (US $12 billion).
Eskom’s inefficiencies, coupled with a huge debt, expected to peak at ZAR 500 billion (US$34 billion) in 2019, or 10 percent of South Africa’s GDP of US $349 billion, has been described by international financial analysts like Goldman Sachs, as the biggest threat to the South African economy.
Zimbabwe should learn from the South Africa’s experience with Eskom and put in place measures to arrest that from happening to ZESA.
ZESA generates 98 percent of Zimbabwe’s power requirements and thus plays a very pivotal role to economic stability and growth.
The Minister of Energy and Power Development should show strong political will to transform the energy and power sectors as the country drives towards Vision 20130.
Incapacity to meet current and anticipated future national energy and power requirements will cripple our economic recovery efforts.
Continued next week
Allen Choruma can be contacted on e mail: [email protected]
