Zimbabwe is under a daily 12-hour power outage due to a technical fault at the coal-fired power station in Hwange.
With an installed capacity of 920MW, the power station was generating 93MW yesterday. Zimbabwe’s biggest power station, Kariba, generated 977 yesterday out of an installed capacity of 1050MW.
The outage would have been worse if it had happened in winter where demand is high with preference given to winter wheat farmers.
The relentless power cuts have also affected Zambia and South Africa, leaving the region in darkness in an unprecedented scenario for Southern Africa.
Until the latest technical fault at Hwange, the power situation had normalised and power cuts had been reduced.
This has given hope that the economy would be revived following a knock caused by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The easing of restrictions in August had given local companies fresh impetus with a number projecting a growth in the last quarter of this year due to increased demand.
All the growth projections could be thrown into disarray if the power crisis is not quickly resolved.
The alternative for companies is a tall order. Diesel-powered generators are expensive to use. In addition, there are no service stations that sell fuel in local currency despite a number of them making a beeline at the RBZ foreign currency auction to access the greenbacks.
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority recently invited fuel operators to register so that they will be allowed to sell fuel in local currency for government ministries and departments. It’s a privilege as only few will benefit while leaving companies to look for the US Dollar to buy the fuel in foreign currency.
For the capital intensive mining sector, the rolling power cuts do not bode well for the recovery of the industry.
A recent state of the mining sector report showed that mining executives are expecting infrastructure and the energy situation for the mining sector to worsen next year, highlighting the fragile electricity supply, ZESA’s push for an increase in tariffs as areas of concern and exporters inability to meet the power utility’s additional requirements to import power from the region.
According to the report, respondents experiencing significant power outages indicated that they were not connected to dedicated power lines while those experiencing moderate and occasional power outages reported that they were connected to dedicated power lines but the transmission infrastructure is too old and prone to faults.
The executives expect ZESA to prioritise the sector next year to minimise production stoppages and output losses. They also expect the power utility to abandon the proposal for bank guarantees as security for power supply and they are also expecting ZESA to accept payment in local currency.
All hope is not lost however. Zimbabwe is set to harvest more megawatts when one additional unit at Hwange starts generating next year and will add 300MW to the grid. The second additional unit will start generating in 2023 adding an additional 300MW. For now, companies and households have to be content with dark days ahead until a long lasting solution is found.
