Load shedding has worsened in Zimbabwe despite an increase in generation at local power stations because South Africa has reduced electricity exports to its northern neighbour, it has emerged.
The Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings, successfully synchronised the first of two generators on Unit 7 into the national grid on Monday, 20 March 2023.
On Thursday 30th March 2023, Hwange Thermal Power Station’s Unit 7 first achieved a full capacity output of 335MW.
This raised hopes that debilitating unscheduled power cuts will be a thing of the past, but this has not happened.
Addressing journalists during a post-Cabinet briefing on Tuesday, 04 April, Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda, said that load shedding won’t ease anytime soon. He was quoted by NewsDay as saying:
At the time Unit 7 came in we started experiencing challenges, with our imports from South Africa.
They are also having their own challenges, so there has been a curtailment of power coming from SA.
He said Unit 7 was still undergoing some tests and is not yet available commercially. He said:
There has been an improvement in power supply in the country with the coming in of Unit 7.
But you will be cognisant that it’s not yet available commercially. It is still going through some tests,” Soda said.
As we speak, it’s still being tested. So we don’t expect the Zimbabwe Electricity and Transmission Distribution Company (ZETDC) to revise its load-shedding schedule soon.
On Tuesday, 04 April 2022, ZPC was generating 1 071 megawatts split as 709MW from Hwange Power Station, Kariba (350MW) and 12MW from Munyati while Harare and Bulawayo produced zero.
On Wednesday, 05 April 2022, Hwange was generating 412MW, Kariba, 350MW, Munyati, 13MW, Harare, 0, and Bulawayo 0, to give a total of 775MW.
More: Pindula News