Local power utility Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) executive chairman Sydney Gata says the state-owned electricity supplier has a major shortfall of 540 megawatts (MW) due to high demand.”
Zesa has been facing a power supply shortfall of up to 540 MW during the high demand winter period.
Total power supply is averaging 1310 MW against a demand of 1850MW at peak, leaving a shortfall of 540MW and the attendant load shedding,” Gata says in a press release.
“However, we have experienced a fault at the Hwange Power Station Unit 8 last week and we had to switch it off. These are normal technical hitches that happen during the infancy of any new plants and I’m glad to notify you that out engineers have resolved this and we expect to synchronize the unit to be back on line soon.”
The utility implemented measures to increase power supply with additional imports to augment local supply and interventions to restore capacity at Hwange Power Station stages 1 & 2 that have been out due to forced outages.
Hwange Power Station’s ongoing Repowering Programme is a significant initiative aimed at enhancing the station’s reliability and output.
With this investment (US$800 million), the project is set to upgrade Units 1 to 6, ensuring increased capacity, reliability, and extending the operational life of the units by 15 to 20 years.
“Currently, the station is maintaining a commendable output of 485MW, even as Unit 5 is being upgraded. The completion of Unit 5 repowering effort is strategically scheduled for April 2025, which will bolster the station’s capacity in preparation for the high demand during the winter peak season.
“Furthermore, to try and mitigate the demand and supply gap, wehave to resort to imports from other regional utilities and ZETDC is actively involved on the SAPP Day Ahead Market to access any excess power from the region.
The imports have however beenreduced as we do not have full capacity to service the arrears.
We are owed in excess of ZIG 5.7 billion by several customers. Despite the supply shortages, we have had to resort to exporting electricity during non-peak hours to raise some foreign currency to meet our obligations.”
