PHILLIMON MHLANGA IN VICTORIA FALLS
Power utility ZESA Holdings requires US$15 million a month to get 600 megawatts (MW) of electricity imports to avert the crippling load-shedding, acting CEO Patrick Chivaura said yesterday.
Zimbabwe is facing crippling power outages which last for more than 15 hours per day due to inefficiencies at Hwange and the low water levels at Kariba.
Chivaura told Business Times at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce annual congress which kicked off yesterday in Victoria Falls that the power utility was speaking to other regional suppliers outside Eskom of South Africa and Hydro Cahora Bassa (HCB) of
Mozambique. The two power utilities are owed about US$83m and have only been supplying Zimbabwe about 50MW.
“In the short-term, we need forex to the tune of US$15 million a month to pay for 600MW from regional suppliers outside Eskom and HCB,” Chivaura told Business Times.
“We are targeting what we call the day ahead market, that is, the Southern African Power Pool, which oversees the power network in the region. So, they have created a market which we intend to take advantage of. But the power supplies need to be paid for in advance.”
He was hopeful the power utility bankers would avail the required forex through the interbank market.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe stopped paying for imports in October 2018, according to Chivaura, resulting in Eskom and HCB reducing significantly they supplies to Zimbabwe to 50MW. Now, Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, has promised to pay about US$10 million to
Eskom.
Zimbabwe is facing power shortages due dwindling water for power generation in the Kariba Dameand low generation from the four thermal power plants in Hwange, Bulawayo, Munyati and Harare.
As of yesterday, Zimbabwe’s power stations generated a combined 1093MW against a national demand of 1 800MW because of the winter cropping season. This means there was a short fall of more than 700MW.
To deal with this shortfall, ZESA switches off electricity consumers because it can’t import anymore enough electricity to cover for short falls. It used to import about 450MW from Eskom and HCB to cover for imports. But now the two power utilities have curtailed supplies to Zimbabwe to about 50MW because now payment of debt obligations.
Kariba Hydro power station, which has a capacity to generate 1050MW, is now generating less than 500MW, while the country’s largest thermal power station Hwange was producing 50MW against an installed capacity of 920MW as it was running on four out of six turbines.
The power station has obsolete equipment which suffers frequent breakdowns. Smaller thermal power stations in Bulawayo, Munyati and Harare yesterday produced a combined 55MW instead of about 300MW. Small independent power producers, Inyangani and Chisumbanje yesterday produced a meagre 10MW.
