The Sunday Mail
Nelson Gahadza
Senior Business Reporter
THE Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) says several regional financial institutions are keen to bankroll the proposed 2 500 megawatt (MW) Batoka hydroelectric project, which will significantly improve power supply in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The proposed US$4,5 billion Batoka project is being implemented on the Zambezi River by ZRA, an organisation equally owned by the governments of Zimbabwe and Zambia.
In Zambia, the suppressed demand is estimated at 2 890MW, while Zimbabwe requires about 4 369MW by 2030.
In a recent interview, ZRA chief executive Engineer Munyaradzi Munodawafa said the authority continued to engage strategic partners to help mobilise the required finance for the work.
The immediate focus was funding the project preparatory studies and associated activities, which would pave the way for the engagement of the developer, he added.
This comes after an agency of the United Nations recently cleared Zambia and Zimbabwe to build a hydropower dam on the Batoka Gorge, a Unesco World Heritage site, downstream from Victoria Falls.
The clearance comes after concerns had earlier been raised about the potential impact of the project on the environment.
Eng Munodawa said domestic resource mobilisation was being vigorously pursued. The idea is to get regional and domestic financial institutions to participate in the project.
“In this regard, the authority held meetings with the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission and the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) to strategise on the next programme for the project.
“Follow-up meetings are scheduled for January 2024. Once the above processes are completed, the physical engagements of potential financiers for the Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Scheme will commence,” said Eng Munodawafa.
Zimbabwe recently commissioned Hwange Power Station Units 7 and 8, financed through US$1,5 billion financial facilities secured from China. The thermal energy project increased the country’s power generation capacity by 600MW.
While Harare recently added 600MW to the grid, a combined domestic generation of just 1 000MW of available capacity remains far short of national demand, which peaks at between 1 800MW and 2 200MW, depending on the season.
Eng Munodawafa noted that, based on preliminary engagements, regional and domestic financing institutions are interested in participating in the project.
As a result, he said, the authority is updating its domestic resource mobilisation strategy with the help of AUDA-NEPAD, which will speak to the participation of these institutions in raising the required project funds.
“Completion of the studies will clearly define the optimised project scope and, hence, give better estimates of the project costs. These costs are cardinal in the computation of the anticipated tariff for the power produced by the new generation plants,” he said.
Eng Munodawafa said the project will improve the electricity generation capacity of the power supply infrastructure of the two countries. This would be a key step forward in tackling the ever-increasing energy supply gap in both countries, he added.
“The Batoka project has strong continental and regional support, being a priority under the AUDA-NEPAD-PIDA (Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa) list, and the project transmission lines speak to the regional integration agenda, giving access to regional power markets,” he said.
Eng Munodawafa said the project will generate over 8 000 job opportunities during the construction phase, with more secondary and induced job opportunities for both the public and private sectors.
“This will assist in skills transfer for many locals through a deliberate capacity-building programme that will be implemented,” he said.
The ZRA boss said the creation of additional reservoirs along the Zambezi River was a climate-resilience strategy that would help the two countries and the region store enough water to support not only power generation but also the agriculture and tourism sectors, among others.
Eng Munodawafa said these factors will contribute directly to the significant
upliftment of the economies of the two countries.
Meanwhile, harnessing solar energy is increasingly becoming dominant as renewable energy technologies now dominate the licensed power projects, in line with Zimbabwe’s quest for cleaner and more sustainable power supplies.
According to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA), Zimbabwe could soon become a net exporter of power within the Southern African Development Community region should the country harness the concentrated solar power potential of 39.5 gigawatts, which far exceeds the country’s needs.
An update from ZERA shows that, as of November 30, 2023, a total of 14 independent power producers with a capacity of 95,99MW were currently contributing to the country’s national grid, along with several other projects at different levels of implementation.
