Hosia Mviringi
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA Holdings) the holding company of the country’s power generation unit, (ZPC) has issued a statement warning power consumers of ongoing power rationing.
This has been necessitated by a major breakdown at its Hwange Power Station, which has left many parts of the country in darkness.
“ZESA Holdings would like to advise its valued customers countrywide that there is a limited power supply in the national grid due to a technical fault at Hwange Power Station,” said ZESA in a statement issued through its Stakeholder Relations desk.
The technical fault has taken out a massive 440MW generation capacity from an installed capacity of 920MW of power.
The power station consists of 4 × 120MW and 2 × 220MW generating units.
“The technical fault resulted in the loss of 440MW at Hwange Power Station. Restoration of service is underway with two units having been brought back.
Consumers are advised to use the available power sparingly,” said ZESA.
Hwange Power Station supplies up to 40 percent of national power needs, making it one of the most important power generating installations in the country.
In August 2018, the national power utility embarked on an expansion program of the Hwange Power Station which is envisaged to bring 600MW of power onto the national grid by end of 2021.
The expansion project suffered extensive delays due to the Covid-19 induced delays, only progressing to 65 per cent completion against a target of 90 per cent completion by end of June 2021.
The power station, which has seen intermittent break downs due to ageing generation equipment, has had to operate an average of two units at any given time for the better part of the year.
This makes Units 7 and 8 more urgent now as they will provide fallback option in the event of break down or planned down time.
When the US$1.5 billion expansion is complete, Hwange Power Station is expected to supply 60 per cent of Zimbabwe’s power needs, making it the driving engine for industrial growth in the country.
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