Hwange Power Station $1,5m expansion deal near conclusion

Dumisani Nsingo Senior Business Reporter
THE Hwange Power Station (HPS) expansion project estimated to cost around $1,5 billion is now awaiting financial closure amid revelations that the deal between the Chinese firm, Sino Hydro which won the tender and Government is expected to be concluded before the end of the year. A financial closure refers to the stage in a financial agreement where conditions have been satisfied or waived and draw-downs become permissible.

Energy and Power Development Ministry permanent secretary Mr Partson Mbiriri said Sino Hydro experts were already carrying out a preliminary geological survey with a view of starting work on the HPS expansion project, which would see an additional two units being put to the fold.
Hwange has six units, four units of 120 megawatts (MW) each and two units of 220MW each.

He said this in an interview on the sidelines of the Water, Sanitation and Energy conference held at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair exhibition centre on Thursday.
“There is some presence of Sino Hydro experts at Hwange, in anticipation of financial closure, which we expect to take place before the end of the year. They have not started the actually work. It will start when funding is secured. They are undertaking preliminary investigations to establish the geology of the area and so forth,” Mr Mbiriri said.
He said the additional units, seven and eight would generate 300MW each.

Mr Mbiriri said power generation at HPS has over the years seen a steady improvement from a low of 100 to 150MW three years ago to around 600 MW.
“There are challenges because it’s now fairly old, more than 25 years old but nevertheless there has been remarkable improvement of power generation at Hwange. Our target is that the existing HPS should give us 750 megawatts.

“It’s designed capacity is 930MW but we can’t reach that now because it’s an old plant and we are slowly moving towards 750MW and we would want to expedite that movement so as to militate against the impact of reduced generation at Kariba (Hydro Electricity Power Station),” Mr Mbiriri said.

In 2009, Namibia’s NamPower made agreements to help Zesa to revive four units at the ageing power station in exchange for power deliveries.
HPS was built in two stages with construction of stage one commencing in 1973, but was suspended in 1975 due to economic sanctions imposed on Rhodesia.
The 4 x 120MW units were commissioned between 1983 and 1986 and the 2 x 220MW were commissioned in 1986 and 1987.

Mr Mbiriri also said the Government was working on improving power generation through changing boilers at the three small thermal power stations namely Harare, Bulawayo and Munyati.

The Government has already secured $70 million required for rehabilitation at Harare thermal power station form the Indian Exim Bank and a contractor to carry out the work has also been identified. The $87 million required for the Bulawayo project has also been sourced but a tender for a contractor to carry out the work is yet to be run.

“These will be in much shorter-term than the bigger projects and yet in terms of improvement in generation they will assist us a great deal. For Harare we expect that improvement will be from the current 30 MW to about 120MW in terms of output and for Bulawayo from the current 25MW to about 100MW as well,” Mr Mbiriri said.

There is a team of 11 Indian experts that are resident in Hwange who are assisting local artisans to manage and maintain the plant.
The Indian consultancy firm’s presence in the country dates back to the 80s following an agreement signed between the Indian and Zimbabwean Government.
Association for Business in Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Dr Lucky Mlilo said availability of power was important for the economy to tick.

“Power is very important because it’s one of the economic enablers and industry has always been crying foul over the years that their production is being interrupted by continuous power outages.

“We appreciate the efforts being done by Government with regards to improving power generation in the country but our members would want to know if the Government is going to subsidise the installation of solar geysers, which will replace electric geysers,” he said.

Government is crafting legislation to outlaw the use of electric geysers as it battles to reduce electricity consumption following crippling power outages that have hit the country over the years.