Prolonged Power Cuts Blamed On Technical Faults At Hwange Power Station
The prolonged load shedding currently being experienced across the country is a result of technical challenges at Hwange Power Station, a cabinet minister has said.
The country’s electricity situation improved somewhat after the government announced that it had agreed on a 400MW power deal with South Africa’s power utility, Eskom.
However, the situation has deteriorated in most parts of the country over the last several days with consumers going for 16 hours without electricity.
Energy and Power Development Minister, Fortune Chasi told ZTN on Thursday that the situation will normalise soon. He said:
I must admit that there was a bit of regression over the past few days. This, not a permanent situation. It’s really arising from the challenges that we faced from a number of units in Hwange but its actively being sorted out so I am confident that they will come on board pretty soon.
Chasi also revealed that load shedding will continue for households as priority will be given to the mining and farming sectors. He said:
What we are doing at the moment is to ensure that we give more power to the productive sector. We want to make sure that the mines are operating and that the farms, and particularly now that we have wheat, we want to ensure that the farms have power. So the domestic consumer will find that they will be load shed.
