Power blackout looms

It has emerged that state-owned power utility, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Association (ZESA), is struggling to raise money to pay HCB and is now demanding that equally cash-strapped consumers pay up all outstanding bills in a desperate bid to raise funds to honour its dues to the Mozambicans.

“The Mozambican power bill is accruing and we are failing to pay the accruing bill,” said ZESA spokesman Fullard Gwasira. “Only 10 percent of the total bills from local customers have been made. Let customers complain after paying the bills, where is the 90 percent? If given the total support from electricity users definitely we are going to meet consumer needs.”

Zimbabwe buys electricity from Mozambiques Cahora Bassa hydroelectric dam on the Zambezi River. Officials say it has failed to pay its debts on time due to its prolonged financial and political crisis.

HCB is one of three regional power firms that supply 35 percent of Zimbabwes electricity requirements. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Snel power firm and South Africa’s Eskom are the two others that help Zimbabwe with electricity.

ZESA, which recently transformed into ZESA Holdings (Pvt) Limited ahead of its privatisation, generates 68 percent of total national power requirements from its Kariba South Power Station, which has a capacity to generate 750 MW and Hwange Power Station which can produce 920 MW of electricity.

However, ZESAs power stations and transmission grid — like most major national infrastructure — have crumbled after years of under-funding and downright neglect and hardly ever produce to maximum capacity.

Zimbabwean cities have to sometimes go for several days without electricity because of breakdowns at ZESAs archaic power stations or on the transmission network, while failure by the state energy utility to pay for coal has seen some of its thermal power stations having to operate below capacity most of the times.

Reports two weeks ago said ZESA Holdings required about US$230 million to rehabilitate its main thermal power station, upgrade the national grid and refurbish the distribution network in order to keep abreast with rising power demand money neither the power utility nor the government has.