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The 300MW Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 will be back online in the next three weeks while negotiations are underway to increase electricity imports and speed up the rehabilitation of the ageing units at the thermal plants to boost supplies and bring to an end the ongoing load-shedding regime.
Energy and Power Development Minister, Cde Edgar Moyo made these remarks during a tour of the Hwange Power Station in Matabeleland North province where he assured stakeholders that swift measures were being taken to restore normal power supplies and support key economic sectors.
He said the power cuts being experienced across the country have been caused by reduced domestic power generation due to low water levels at Lake Kariba, which has severely crippled hydro-power production, as well as the switching off of Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 for maintenance purposes.
To ensure long-term supply stability, the Government is pushing for the retooling of ageing units 1 to 6 at Hwange Power Station and rolling out new technologies, which include introducing a floating solar system at Lake Kariba and bringing on stream several independent renewable power producers.
The country’s electricity generation dropped to about 1 300MW recently against a demand of 1 800MW following the scheduled switching off of Unit 7 for Class C maintenance and reduced capacity at Kariba Hydro-power Station, which is now producing an average of 300MW.
This has left the country largely dependent on Hwange Power Station and imports from regional producers.
“There is a need to deploy new technology for units 1 to 6 and our capacity to generate will be increased and we will be able to supply sufficient power to the nation,” said Minister Moyo during the tour.
“We are doing about 1 300MW against a peak demand of 1 850MW. So, we are having that deficit, which has been occasioned by the outage of Unit 7, and to mitigate that some imports are being experienced.”
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