There will be no interrupted coal supplies when units seven and eight at Hwange Thermal Power Plant start commercial production soon, a senior Government official has said.
Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), a power-generating unit of ZESA Holdings awarded Hwange Colliery Company Ltd and Turbo Mining, which is extracting coal at the western areas of Hwange, contracts to supply coal to new generators.
ZESA is set to commission unit seven with capacity to produce 300 MW by the end of this month.
Unit eight is expected to come on stream during this quarter, according to official timelines.
The expansion of Hwange thermal is being implemented under the US$1,2 billion deal entered between Sino Hydro of China and the Government about five years ago.
There was an outcry from the Coal Producers Association, a lobby group that represents coal mining firms — which said the exclusion of other miners would lead to increased concentration of risk. There are about five companies mining in Hwange.
In an interview last week, Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda allayed fears of potential coal shortages for the expanded Hwange thermal plant.
“The contracted companies are already stockpiling and we don’t think we will have any supply issues,” said Minister Soda. He confirmed that some coal producers approached his ministry seeking to be “also considered,” but “I was advised that their bids failed to meet minimum requirements outlined in the tender.”
He added: “One of the requirements in the tender document required that companies participating in the tender process needed to own claims, but some of the companies are actually renting mining grounds; they are doing contract mining.”
CPA chairman Mr Linos Masimura recently confirmed efforts to engage the Government had failed.
“We tried to formally engage the Government but we haven’t succeeded,” said Mr Masimura.
“Hwange unit 7 and 8 is a huge national project and by contracting two companies, you are basically increasing risk concentration,” he added.
An official at Hwange said the company was looking at ramping up production after receiving some new equipment recently.
“We have been working to boost production ahead of the commissioning of units 7 and 8,” the official, who declined to be named because is not authorised to talk to the press said.
“The turnaround of the business is bearing fruit and we have already paid almost all local debts.”
The Government has a significant shareholding in Hwange Colliery Company.
Minister Soda said the commissioning of unit 7 was “almost complete,” with engineers now finalizing works on the protection system that allows evacuation of power to the grid.
Commercial production was initially expected to start at the end of December 2022, but there were challenges in mobilizing technicians from the Chinese company ABB to conduct the testing on the evacuation protection system following the resurgence of COVID-19 in the Asian country.
“The testing of the power plant was done and passed,” said Minister Soda in an interview last week.
“We are only left with the testing of the protection system that allows for the evacuation of power to the transmission system and a team from China only came into the country during mid-December when we initially expected them in November.
“There was also a delay in them understanding all the systems; we are now expecting them to complete the test in three weeks and to have the plant run by end of this month.”
After commissioning of the Hwange 7 & 8 units, Zesa intends to start major rehabilitation of the existing units to restore their capacity to 930 MW.
Already, the Government has secured US$310 million from the Export-Import Bank of India for the exercise.
The rehabilitation will be done in phases. – The Herald
