BULAWAYO – ZESA has warned of depressed power generation due to a fault at Hwange.

The power utility said the fault at the coal-powered generator on Sunday had resulted in the “reduction of available power supplies.”

“The unforeseen incident has necessitated increased load shedding across all customer groups,” ZESA added in a statement.

The statement did not state if the fault was experienced with the older generators which are prone to faults, or the two new units built by Chinese engineers.

On Saturday, Hwange was producing 979 megawatts while Kariba weighed in with 400 MW and a further 75 MW came from independent power producers for a total of 1,454 MW before imports. Zimbabwe’s peak demand for electricity is around 2,000 MW, according to ZESA.

The shortfall between demand and generation has resulted in daily power cuts, some lasting up to eight hours.