2,400 MW Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Project May Never Take Off
The Batoka Gorge Hydroelectric Project, meant to solve perennial electricity shortages in Zimbabwe and Zambia, may not proceed due to significant hurdles, an official has revealed.
The multi-billion-dollar power plant, planned since 1972, is expected to generate 2,400 MW to alleviate power shortages.
Despite renewed efforts in the past decade, ZESA Holdings executive chairperson Sydney Gata said that the project is fraught with risks.
Gata, who was speaking during the ongoing Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit in Victoria Falls, said (via NewsDay):
The other thing that I would like to mention, especially in respect of Batoka, is that we always need to do more exhaustive feasibility studies.
The project has not seen the light of day since 42 years ago. One of the reasons is that there has not been an exhaustive review of markets and also hydrology.
The project that we have today, in our experience, will not work. There is also a question of enforcement risk.
Enforcement risk is my translation of the experience we had in the reconstitution of CAPCO (Central African Power Corporation) and the formation of ZRA (Zambezi River Authority). That process was not clean.
Due to low water levels at Kariba Dam, power generation at both Kariba North and Kariba South Power Stations has been severely impacted, resulting in up to 20 hours of load shedding per day in both Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Kariba South Power Station, operated by ZESA, has a generation capacity of 1,050 MW but is currently producing only 124 MW. Said Gata:
… decisions were being made at a political level without regard to the position of technocrats”.
I said that not all the political leadership is aware of this. We tried very hard to advocate for further extensive studies.
Certain hydrological models and models of investment can overcome this ugly picture. Batoka, as it stands now, is a victim of load factor risk.
It is also a victim of load profile risk, but you can mitigate both. If you do further feasibility studies, there are other options. In fact, some of them we knew about in 1984.
I am surprised that they have not been taken into account. Batoka also needs a market study that is honest and relevant.
In 2021, the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) announced that the consortium chosen to build the project was having difficulty securing funding.
More: Pindula News
