Zimbabwe’s power utility, ZESA Holdings, has announced that the national power grid is currently facing reduced electricity generation capacity due to a technical fault at Hwange Power Station.
This issue has contributed to widespread power outages, with several areas across the country experiencing more than 24 hours without electricity.
In a statement released on Wednesday morning, ZESA said the situation has been further worsened by low water levels at Kariba Power Station, which have significantly reduced its generation capacity. It said:
ZESA Holdings would like to advise its valued stakeholders that the national power grid is currently experiencing reduced electricity generation capacity due to a technical fault at Hwange Power Station.
This has been further compounded by low generation capacity at Kariba Power Station, resulting from low water levels.
Our technical teams are actively working to resolve the fault at Hwange to minimize the impact on our customers.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.
While ZESA Holdings announced on Wednesday that the national power grid was facing reduced electricity generation capacity due to a technical fault at Hwange Power Station, just an hour earlier, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), ZESA’s power generating unit, had released power generation statistics indicating that Hwange had been consistently generating 874 MW since Monday.
This apparent contradiction—ZESA reporting a technical fault at Hwange, while ZPC maintains that the power station has been operating as usual—has raised concerns about the accuracy and transparency of the power utility’s reports.
Critics suggest that the discrepancy between the two statements could lend credence to claims that ZESA’s power generation statistics may not reflect the true situation on the ground and could be unreliable.
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