By a Correspondent
ENERGY and Power Development Minister Soda Zhemu has said the Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 will be switched on by 16 March 2023 and Unit 8 a month later to boost power supplies in the country presently experiencing a deficit.
The two units are expected to add 600 megawatts to the national power grid.
Updating legislators in Parliament on Wednesday, Zhemu said:
“In the meeting that we held just recently with ZESA, they have now confirmed that Unit 7 shall be tied to the grid on the 16th of March. The second unit which is Unit 8, they are still working on and will be coming in a month later to give us the 600 megawatts,” said the Minister.
“I am aware that people would have wanted this project to be completed early but this is the gestation of power stations, especially power stations when they are being constructed. We could not achieve that earlier than the gestation or lead time, which was provided for the project but we now have a concrete date that by the 16th of March, according to ZESA; 300 megawatts will start to be fed into the grid.”
The minister also explained that the long periods of load-shedding this week were a result of a fault in Hwange which affected three units.
“Shortly before we lost those three units, Hwange was sending to the grid around 440 megawatts and we came down to 77 megawatts. This is a result of the age of the equipment, which we have always spoken about,” he said.
“The power station was constructed between 1983 and 1986 and the equipment is now due for replacement. The Government has taken an initiative through procurement of a loan facility, which is currently being worked on by way of a detailed project report, which has been concluded.”
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