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George Maponga
Masvingo Bureau
Work on the US$14,6 million Mutirikwi Hydro Power Plant is proceeding according to plan with the project now 82 percent complete and poised for commissioning in July this year.
The development is one of the many projects Masvingo needs to become self-reliant in its power needs as Zimbabwe vies to become an upper middle income society by 2030.
The 5MW clean energy project at Lake Mutirikwi also dovetails with the thrust to build a US$8 billion provincial economy in Masvingo by 2030.
Great Zimbabwe Hydro Power Company is building the power plant and the power output will be fed into the national grid and construction of a 25km long powerline that will connect the power plant to the grid is already underway.
It is one of major projects being rolled out in the province as a vote of confidence to the Second Republic’s ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’ mantra.
Great Zimbabwe Hydro Power Company’s projects coordinator, Mr Hubert Chipfumbu, recently expressed satisfaction with progress covered to date saying he was optimistic the revised new completion timelines will be met.
He blamed unforeseen delays caused by release of irrigation water from Lake Mutirikwi for a shift in the project completion date that had initially been scheduled for the end of last month.
”We are now at 82 percent completion rate and we are on course for the project to be commissioned in July this year though we expect all work to be completed by the end of June.”
“The major work taking place now is installation of turbines and alternators in the power house,” said Mr Chipfumbu.
Considerable progress has also been made on the penstock that will funnel water from the dam to the power house where it will move turbines to generate power.
Mr Chipfumbu emphasised that his firm was excited by progress covered to date despite challenges encountered along the way especially the need to scale down works to allow the release of irrigation water downstream.
Lake Mutirikwi supplies water to the Lowveld which is home to Zimbabwe’s largest cane fields.
”We had to periodically stop work or scale down sometimes to pave the way for the release of water from Lake Mutirikwi for irrigation purposes downstream. This has sometimes affected our work and obviously forced us to reschedule the completion timelines.”
The mini-hydro power plant is one of many power generation projects earmarked for major dams around the country with a bigger plant being planned at Tugwi-Mukosi, which is Zimbabwe’s largest inland dam and has capacity to generate 17MW.
At Lake Mutirikwi power project, Great Zimbabwe Hydro Power Company is working with a Danish firm, Frontier Energy and Old Mutual Life Assurance Company as partners in the game-changing venture .
The project has to date created more than 150 jobs in the unskilled and skilled castes benefitting mainly villagers from Murinye and Chikwanda communal lands in Masvingo districts.
There ongoing development of the Lake Mutirikwi power generation plant is already igniting more interest in hydro power generation with Government already toying with the idea of building another power plant with the same capacity, further downstream of the current plant that will also generate another 5MW.
Online Reporter