Chronicle Editor
Independent power producers (IPPs) play a progressive role in boosting electricity supplies in many countries.
In some cases they cover small gaps left by national utilities. In others they actually are the dominant providers of electricity.
In the Zimbabwean case, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) is the major producer but sometimes struggles to generate enough for national needs hence the Government has in recent years been encouraging private companies to invest in the field.
As a result we have seen a number of companies securing Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) approval to invest in harnessing of mainly solar and hydro capacity to enhance supplies at local levels. To some extent, that has assisted in reducing demand on the national grid as companies or institutions which produce their own power wean themselves off the grid.
In the next few weeks, the country will have a company not simply producing for local consumption but to also feed into the national grid.
We carried an interesting story yesterday of a local company, Zhongxin Electrical Energy (Private) Limited (ZZEE) which, for two years, has been building a 320MW coal-fired power plant in Hwange. With substantial investment made at its facility, the company is now constructing a 13-kilometre power line to link itself with ZPC infrastructure, expecting to channel an initial 25MW of electricity for national consumption in the next two months. In total, ZZEE will deliver 50MW in the first phase.
Zera granted ZZEE a licence to construct, own, operate the new plant on the outskirts of Hwange town, a project that involves installation of approximately 15km of an 88 (132) Kv double lynx line from the proposed thermal plant to the existing ZPC Hwange 330/88Kv/33Kv substation.
“As you can see, we are working on the 13km high voltage power line linking us with ZPC,” ZZEE project public relations manager, Mr Bob Wang told us.
“We have done almost 80 percent of the job and we are only left with 13 intermediate poles. After this, we will start connecting wires and our target is to complete this within the next month or two. We need power connection from ZPC to enable us to start trial testing of our plant.
“We will do this testing exercise for a month to allow adjustment of our equipment and thereafter we can start feeding power to the national grid. We want to start with the first 25MW unit.”
On completion, the power plant will consume 300 000 tonnes of coal annually and ZZEE has applied to the Government for a Coal Special Grant (CSG) to enable the company to produce its own feedstock for electricity production.
The project will see the first stage commissioning a 50MW power plant, which will be closely followed by two 135MW units that are set to be brought online sometime this year.
To show high-level support for the investment, President Mnangagwa toured the ZZEE project in July last year.
ZZEE is a welcome addition to the national grid, hoping that more IPPs who have been awarded licences to play a role will speed up their projects. In saying this, we are cognisant of a general concern that most of the companies awarded similar licences are struggling to complete their projects. Parliament heard early this month that IPPs are only providing 135,8MW of power yet the Government awarded 25 licences enough for them to generate 6 858MW.
The record is clearly abysmal. The strugglers are urged to resolve whatever challenges they are facing, working as hard as ZZEE.
The market is waiting for them. As the economy continues to recover and grow towards middle income status in the next nine years, national energy efficiency will be critical. ZPC and a few IPPs that are online are unlikely to be able to build enough capacity to meet the demand we foresee.
Online Reporter