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Synchronisation Of Hwange Unit 7 Almost Failed To Happen - ZESA Boss

1 year agoSun, 26 Mar 2023 04:54:47 GMT
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Synchronisation Of Hwange Unit 7 Almost Failed To Happen - ZESA Boss

ZESA Holdings executive chairman, Sydney Gata said that the synchronisation of the Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 with the national grid almost failed to happen.

The Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) managed to synchronise the first of two generators into the national grid on Monday, 20 March after failing to do so several times.

The two generators make up the Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 and 8 Expansion Project being installed under a US$1.4 billion facility from China Eximbank.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Standard on the sidelines of the 4th International Renewable Energy Conference in Victoria Falls organised by The Standard in collaboration with the Energy and Power Development ministry, Gata said:

The commissioning of the power plant is a very protracted process and it can be up to six months.

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During that time, you start by testing individual components, processes and systems before they are connected to the grid.

You cannot offload the tests, and two of them are very critical.

There is the boiler hydraulic test and then there is the turbo test.

Out of the 20-plus tests, those two tell you whether you have a power station or not.

In our case, and both for Unit 7 and Unit 8, both were extremely successful, well above average responses.

This power plant, even if we may later fail to run it, was designed very well, and was built very well.

Commissioning is after finishing the offload tests or technical tests.

Synchronisation is when you are connecting a proven asset to the grid.

They (the generator and the grid) must communicate in a very complex language called quotation codes.

Now, the design of the communication system is also a science in its own right.

Gata revealed that the synchronisation process was supposed to take place on 13 December last year but this did not happen. He said:

We were supposed to synchronise on the 13th of December last year, but the quotation codes used by the Chinese were not compatible with the ones we use in Southern Africa.

We asked them to design codes that were compatible with our codes.

They failed, so we went to the supplier, ABB China, and they also failed.

He said he was in a state of panic during the Christman period, and a former ZESA employee who is now a consultant for Eskom saved the day. Said Gata:

We were in a crisis. Ndakaita dzungu. I spent Christmas in a state of panic. We were trying to figure out what to do next.

So, we went to South Africa and put out a tender for the services. There were a few companies in South Africa that responded.

One thing that should make Zimbabweans proud is that one of the companies that responded to the tender) is run by a Zimbabwean named David Mvura, a former ZESA employee and a consultant at Eskom.

He is the one who solved the puzzle.

He (Mvura) was here celebrating with us when we successfully synchronised.

We also celebrated his patriotism.

He gave us a quote for two weeks and did it in under that time. Everyone else I mean the South African companies, wanted four weeks or more.

We are very proud and really celebrate him because the embarrassment we were facing was massive because the power station was finished, the grid is waiting and we are load shedding like it’s a fashion.

Thankfully we are over that.

Gata also said that because the sycnhronisation of Unit 7 was delayed, the progress on Unit 8 was catching up and the sycnhronisation of the latter should happen in about a month’s time.

More: Pindula News

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19 Comments

Anonymous · 1 year ago
You are now praising the Chinesse but you once told us it was funded by the Indians
sadney · 1 year ago
Keeping on giving update without improvement in the service delivery is like singing for a child who is crying out of hunger.He might be calm but for a moment until food is provided.We as citizens don't need to hear the technical terminologies and explainations but power in our homes.Admit you are clueless and have failed.
Anonymous · 1 year ago
Unit 7 ndoyaakutopedza magetsi acho.its now worse Clueless Zanu pf baboons
Jah 🦓 Tsvarie-07 · 1 year ago
Thanx for now telling the truth 🤔 you have been telling us the delays were coz of COVID-19 😀 yet it was failure in technology, bring that guy who fixed the problem to run ZESA period...
Born to suffer · 1 year ago
And still we are loadshedding 17hrs everyday. Saterday night power came on around 10pm and off again 1-30am. Sunday no power. All we get is lies and excuses for their incompetence. We need new leaders let's vote wisely.
Do more · 1 year ago
Talk about 300 MW the whole year, unit 7 this unit 7 tht. Zambian president commissioned 700 plus MW plant yesterday. Gata and ZANU are celebrating smaller things. They forced engineers like the one he is saying consults for ESKOM to go because they underpaid them. Corrupt people. Medupi power station I. SA was commissioned with a capacity of 2000 MW of power then someone makes noise about 300 MW tht we have nt even received
Muckraker · 1 year ago
we are sick and tired of your stories dai manyarara
jones · 1 year ago
What really is going on? We are told that unit 7 is up but it seems like it is sucking the little electricity we had before it was commissioned. The load shedding has increased. Sick and tired of being tired.
Lolo · 1 year ago
Zesa 1 am rabaya ska mukutii mbavha dzevanhu
BVANYANGU · 1 year ago
endless fairy tales
mdra · 1 year ago
Hatosvikepi tichidai Zimbabwe
kg · 1 year ago
iyewe wakakura uchitambudzwa nevaroyi asi hauna kukura here isu varoyi vedu iccc ne Western countries asi tirikungokura tichingokura tichingokura
ZOOKEEPER · 1 year ago
Ukaona usingaoni kut Zanu ndovaroyi ziva kut something wrong
Gandanga · 1 year ago
Waroyiwa cei nhaiwe bere
Chipoko chaQueen · 1 year ago
Saka munotoziya hanyu kuti in the future you will fail to run it.????? Dzimwe nguva ndofunga kuti madhara eZANU ari pamission yekuparadza nyika wozongoizira zvawo opposition yava muvhu
kg · 1 year ago
muromo une mhiripiri maimboshora ma chaina mose nema Americans nhasi muripapi ko iyo mari yabvepi sveeeeee
Chikwereti · 1 year ago
Chikwere baba and it's too much fty.....mybe the whole cost of the project was less imwe ndeye mashefu....

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