More power next month: Mutambara

Mutambara said this while responding to a question by Mazowe South MP Margaret Zinyemba who wanted to know what action the government was taking to end power shortages that have seen consumers going for hours without supplies, while many have lost valuable appliances destroyed when power is abruptly switched of or on during load shedding by ZESA.

“The Minister of Energy and his team are busy crafting measures to ensure that we can mitigate the dangers and problems created by power cuts,” Mutambara told the House. “We are working on a short to medium term plan to minimise the impact of power cuts.”

Mutmbara said the power disruptions were caused by a breakdown at Hwange, the country s largest thermal power station.

“Right now the official capacity of Hwange (power plant) is 750 (megawatts) MW and we are getting 200MW,” Mutambara told legislators. “We had an accident in December that led to those savage and huge cuts. We are progressively resolving the matter. By end of April we will be back to about 500MW which will give us a temporary respite to the challenges we are experiencing.”

Hwange, like Kariba hydro power station, has been dogged by ageing equipment and lack of funding to buy spares to revamp its units.

Zimbabwe has over the years failed to attract independent power producers despite having several power projects on the cards, which if implemented would make the country a net exporter of electricity.

But an unstable political environment and lack of policies that encourage private sector investment in the sector has kept potential investors away.

State-owned power company ZESA has struggled to raise revenue from customers since the introduction of multi-currencies early this year as part of reforms to lift the southern African country from a deep economic crisis.

ZESA is seeking an independent power producer to develop its Gokwe North power plant to produce 1 400MW at a cost of US$1.6 billion.

To guarantee adequate supply, Zimbabwe has long planned to add two more units at Hwange, generating 300MW each, and expand its Kariba hydro power plant with two generators, adding 150MW each by 2012 at a total cost of US$800 million.

Zimbabwe could also put on its grid 300MW from Lupane Gas project, a Greenfield project at a cost of US$300 million while ZESA jointly owns with Zambia the Batoka power project with potential to generate 1 600MW at a cost of US$1.8 billion.