Zimbabwe has secured US$310 million from the Export-Import Bank of India to rehabilitate six units at the Hwange Power Station in a bid to restore its capacity to 920MW, Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda said.
The rehabilitation of the aging thermal power plant, to be done in three phases, is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2023 and after the commissioning of units 7 and 8.
Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), the generation unit of State power utility Zesa Holdings, is expected to commission unit 7 at Hwange with the capacity of producing 300MW early next month while Unit 8, with the same generation capacity, will come online during the first quarter of 2023.
Government contracted Sino-Hydro to fund the expansion of Hwange in a deal worth US$1,2 billion. Zimbabwe is already experiencing rolling power cuts, also known as load shedding, due to frequent breakdowns at the Hwange power plant.
“We are likely to have two units decommissioned at a time (to pave way for rehabilitation) until all the units have been repaired,” said Minister Soda. “We are looking at restoring the capacity of all the units to 920MW upon completion.”
He said the ZPC has engaged a consultant already working on a detailed project report that will detail the scope of the work and “it should be ready by end of November.” “The report will pave way for the disbursements of the funds by the Exim Bank of India.”
Minister Soda could not provide the rehabilitation timelines.
Hwange was built in two stages with the 4×120MW units commissioned between 1983 and 1986 and the 2x220MW commissioned between 1986 and 1987. The plant produces between 380MW and 400MW, 40 percent below its capacity.
Despite modest investments in Zimbabwe’s energy sector, potential output remains far from being enough to support investments in the economy, some analysts say.
With new investments trickling into the mining and manufacturing sectors, there will be a huge demand for power in the short to medium term, analysts say, adding more investments are “urgently” needed to avert a potential electricity crunch.
Last year, Zesa received 23 applications from smelting and mining companies, which will require 2,100MW by 2025, the utility’s executive chairman Sydney Gata said recently.
The backlog on new connections for domestic customers currently stands at about 350,000, Ralph Katsande, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company, a unit of Zesa, commercial director said this week.
Last week, Zimbabwe experienced a countrywide blackout after transmission infrastructure at Alaska caught fire, resulting in the disturbance of the national transmission system.
All the power stations, except Harare, were switched off and it took almost five hours to restore the system. – The Herald
