CZI casts doubt on speedy completion of IPPs

Business Reporter
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries has cast doubt on the speedy completion of the approved independent power projects.
CZI president Mr Joseph Kanyekanye said none of the projects had specified any commencement or completion date, indicating they could be a long time in coming.
“Of the independent power projects that I have seen, none has a specific timeline showing dates of commencement or completion, and we may have to cope with electricity shortages for a long time to come if the Zesa Holdings does not improve its capacities,” he said.
The Ministry of Energy and Power Development has since indicated that
it has approved five independent power projects, including the 2 400-megawatt Sengwa thermal power station
and the 2 000MW Lusulu thermal power plant.
The other three projects are yet to be identified.
Mr Kanyekanye added that the new tariff increase recently announced by the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company was “unreasonable”, “unjustified” and posed the greatest threat to projected economic growth targets.
Zesa, through its power transmission and distribution subsidiary ZETDC, increased tariffs from US 7,53 cents per kilowatt hour to US 9,94 cents.
“Industry is fragile, and we are still trying to recover. Companies are suffering from failure to pay salaries.
“You then have a 50 percent increase in US dollar terms from a power utility that cannot guarantee power,” said Mr Kanyekanye.
Zimbabwe’s industries consume at least 35 percent of the 1 400MW output by Zesa and experts contend that current output cannot sustain any further industrial growth.
Meanwhile, the CZI in conjunction with the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe and the Chamber of Mines have threatened to take legal action against Zesa Holdings if it does not reverse the latest tariff increase.
Zesa presently suffers from a huge debt overhang in respect of local electricity consumers, which some observers attribute to inflated bills due to an inaccurate billing system.