ZESA Holdings says load shedding will ease considerably in the coming weeks with Zimbabwe soon to get up to 500MW of electricity from Zambia and Mozambique, while Hwange Power Station’s Unit 7 should be feeding 300MW into the national grid before month end.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Herald, ZESA Holdings executive chairman Sydney Gata said that the power utility expects to import 250MW from Zambia and another 250MW from Mozambique. Said Gata:

As for the current load shedding, there is a relief that is coming. We ran around and apart from getting a bit more from Kariba, we will be getting a bit more from Zambia and Mozambique.

From Zambia, we are getting 100MW and they are looking for another 50MW for us there is also a member of the Intensive Energy Users Group who is also looking for another 100MW. So we may get as much as 250MW from Zambia.

Mozambique, I was there recently and we agreed that they will run around and increase from the 60MW they have been giving us, to 100MW immediately, and there is another 150MW which could be coming from Monday next week. So Mozambique should give us 250MW maximum.

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Gata said if all goes according to plan, Hwange’s Unit 7 is expected to start feeding electricity into the grid before month’s end. He said:

The unit itself, in terms of operating, is actually ready to generate. However, there was a delay in the equipment required to connect it to the grid.

So far we expect that it could be around the 20th of this month. It could be later, it could be earlier, but thereabout and surely by Christmas, Unit 7 should be in service, barring unforeseen situations.

Unit 7 has the capacity to generate 300MW, while Unit 8 will also add another 300MW to the main grid when completed in the first quarter of 2023.