Erratic power supplies affect production

Lake Kariba's level has risen to 477,68 metres, which compares favourably with 477,42 metres during the same period last year.

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
BITING power outages continue to dog consumers, inflicting a major blow to industry despite the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera)’s assurance to tame the headache over load shedding.
Economists say erratic power supplies remain a major investment barrier in the country and blame the trend for suffocating production in existing firms.

Last week the power utility announced increased power cuts for about a week citing a technical fault at Kariba power plant.

Zera chief executive officer Engineer Gloria Magombo on Friday insisted the problem will soon be a thing of the past.

She said since the beginning of the year, Zesa, through its subsidiary, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), has been seized with power plant maintenance and refurbishment across the country.

“As the energy regulatory authority, we believe power is no longer a major hindrance to industry capacity utilisation as mechanisms have been put in place by ZPC to ensure that all productive sectors have continuous supplies,” she told Business Chronicle.

Magombo said notable developments by independent power producers were expected to significantly improve power supplies once their projects start feeding to the national grid.

She said more than 10 independent power producers with a capacity to generate over 5,000MW have been licensed by Zera.

These include China Africa Sunlight Energy, and Nyangani Renewable-Duru Minihydro.

At present, statistics from ZPC indicate an upward power generation from an average of 1,200 megawatts at the beginning of the year to about 1,400MW recently.

However, as of Friday the generation statistics had dropped to 1,309MW as some units and boilers at Hwange, Bulawayo, Munyati and Harare thermal power stations were taken out of service for maintenance works.

National power demand stands around 2,200MW but the power utility has been failing to meet the gap resulting in power imports from regional producers.

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has cited power constraints as one of the major challenges hindering industrial growth, especially in the manufacturing sector.

Last year, capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector declined to 39,6 percent from 44,9 percent in 2012 due to a host of challenges among them power constraints, liquidity crunch, influx of imports and antiquated machinery.