The Government is mulling decommissioning the 72-year-old Bulawayo Power Station as it is now generating a fraction of its installed capacity.
This was revealed recently by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Gloria Magombo. She said:
It’s old infrastructure [Bulawayo Power Station]. You can’t get more out of it and it needs to be decommissioned and a new plant built there. We are looking at that option.
Magombo was speaking at the Zimbabwe Smart Cities and Rural Connect conference held in Bulawayo the week before last.
The Bulawayo City Council and Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) are embroiled in legal battles over the ownership of the power station, with the local authority claiming it owns the power plant.
Magombo said the ownership issue was being addressed and several meetings have been held by stakeholders to address the issue. She said:
I think we just need to be updated on where they are because we have engaged the local government and all the other relevant parties and there have been a number of meetings to resolve that issue.
According to Business Times, in 2018 the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) announced in a public notice that it had received an application from the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) for an amendment of the electricity generation licence of the power station to be extended by 20 years from 2024.
The licence was also to enable the entity to produce 120MW with 90MW to be fed into the national grid.
But residents, through the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) and council, objected to the application on the grounds that they were the rightful owners.
Zimbabwe is currently grappling with electricity shortages which have resulted in prolonged power cuts euphemistically referred to as load shedding lasting over 12 hours per day.
On Saturday, 06 May, ZESA was generating 994MW from its power stations. Kariba was generating 659MW, Hwange, 320MW, Harare, 15MW, Bulawayo and Munyati were generating zero power.
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