THE Zimbabwe Power Company is seeking private sector investors with large power demands to take over, modernise and run its three small thermal power stations in Harare, Munyati and Bulawayo in return for guaranteed power supplies.
The three power stations date from the 1940s and 1950s and are now continuously breaking down because of old age and antiquated equipment, although the expensive civil engineering works are still in reasonable shape.
The arrangement would see the refurbishment of the plants, while the investor would be guaranteed power supplies.
The proposal was made public by ZPC acting managing director Engineer Nobert Matarutse on the sidelines of a tour of Harare Thermal Power Station by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy and Power Development yesterday. The committee is on a countrywide tour to assess ZPC’s power generation plants.
“What we are focusing on now as ZPC, in line with Zesa Holdings policy, is for us to repurpose the small thermal power plants so that we can get other investors to come in and take over the running of the stations through some kind of agreements,” Eng Matarutse said.
He said they were already engaging several businesses but could not commit a timeline when the
negotiations would be completed nor the figures involved.
But Harare Thermal Power Station needed at least US$5 million in the short term to increase its current electricity output from 5MW to around 30MW.
“For this particular station, we need about US$5 million, but that will only be able to get us to get the other turbine that is meant for rehabilitation to be brought back to life. When we talk about bringing the whole power station to full steam, we need far much more than that. So, the US$4,9 million that we have shared is to get about 30MW, so to speak,” Eng Matarutse said.
Power generation at Kariba Hydro-electric Power Station is improving since the beginning of the year due to increased water inflows into the dam.
“Last year our usage of water at Kariba Hydro-electric Power Station was on the high side due to challenges that were being experienced at Hwange Power Station which are receiving attention, but I am glad to say that there have been some reasonable inflows into Lake Kariba which have seen us ramping up production from about 250MW from the beginning of the year to about 500MW as of last week,” Eng Matarutse said.
ZPC would continue to monitor use of water to prevent its excessive use and a repeat of last year when the power company had to drastically reduce generation as the stored flood waters ran out and only the daily inflows at low water were available.
The coming in of Hwange Unit 7 has also improved electricity supply in the country through the addition of a further 300MW and the coming in of Unit 8 with another 300MW will further improve the situation. – The Herald
