Phillimon Mhlanga
HARARE – PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to officially launch the $1,4 billion Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion project before the end of this month.
In a telephone interview with Business Times on Monday, Energy and Power Development Minister, Simon Khaya Moyo said the ceremony would mark the beginning of the project which would see the country’s largest coal-fired power station adding two more units with a combined generation capacity of 600 megawatts (MW).
“The official groundbreaking for the (Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion) project is happening end of this month and obviously His Excellency President Mnangagwa is going to officially launch it,” Moyo told this newspaper.
The expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station will be undertaken by a Chinese contractor, Sino Hydro Corporation, which early this year completed the expansion of the Kariba South Hydroelectric Power Station which added 300MW to the national grid.
Mnangagwa last week told delegates attending the ZANU-PF Youth League Convention in Gweru that the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), a generation unit of ZESA Holdings, had started drawing down on the $1,174 billion facility extended by the Chinese Government through China Export Import Bank meant to finance the Hwange Power Station 7 and 8 expansion project, while ZPC provided the balance.
Funding for the Hwange project was one of the major agreements signed by President Robert Mugabe and Chinese President, Xi Jinping during his State visit to Zimbabwe in 2016.
Zimbabwe is experiencing crippling power shortages, with national demand at peak periods estimated at 1 400MW, against available generation of about 1 100MW. To cover for the shortfalls, the power utility is importing electricity from regional suppliers, especially Eskom of South Africa and Hydro Cahora Bassa of Mozambique.
