Zimbabwe’s Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 was successfully restored on Monday, adding 300MW to the national output.
Hwange Power Station’s Unit 7 was first synchronised with the system on March 20 before it was taken off the national grid on 11 May for confirmation tests before being put back into operation.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) announced that the official integration of Unit 7 was confirmed by its contractor, Power China Zimbabwe. Said Power China Zimbabwe, the Chinese company that carried out the installation:
Unit #7 of Hwange Power Plants was officially integrated into the national grid, adding 300MW of electricity to the national grid.
Zimbabwe embarked on the Hwange Power Station expansion project in 2018, with funding primarily coming from China, and the two 300MW units, Units 7 and 8, are being added to the plant. Unit 8 is expected to start power production in October of this year.
Energy and Power Development Minister, Soda Zhemu confirmed that the Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 will add 300MW to the national output, contributing to the 600MW expected from the expansion project before the end of the month. He said:
It was being run on commissioning tests where they were testing the turbine running capacity, which was successful and also the boiler hydraulics.
What happened is that after running it for the period of the tests, they took it out of the grid in order for technicians to do evaluations before the unit is run on commercial basis.
They have been working on the unit and according to what they had pre-determined at a time when they took it off the grid, the unit was supposed to be tied back to the grid today (Thursday).
We now expect that we will be having a contribution of 600 megawatts that will be coming from the expansion project any time before the end of this month, the 300 megawatts coming on commercial availability and the 300 megawatts from Unit 8 still on commercial test.
The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Soda Zhemu, stated that an additional 600 megawatts will improve power availability in the country. He also stated that Kariba South Power Station was generating more power than it was earlier this year due to increased water allocation. The allocation was made after ZESCO and ZESA met with the Zambezi River Authority, which manages the water resources.
The combined output of the country’s electricity has improved, hovering around 1,200MW, recovering from the lowest point of below 400MW earlier this year.