Power imports partly offset cuts

Zvamaida Murwira, Senior Reporter

ZIMBABWE is able to import up to 200MW from South Africa and two Mozambican suppliers to partially fill the generation gap caused by the very low levels of Lake Kariba and the low Zambezi flows in a drought year, Energy and Power Development Minister Edgar Moyo has said.

Answering questions in both the National Assembly and the Senate, Minister Moyo said power generation in the country, through the Zimbabwe Power Company, stood at 1 300MW against a peak demand of 1 850MW, most of the gap caused by the fall in output at Kariba South as a result of severe regional drought.

Some older Hwange units are undergoing rehabilitation.

“The Zambezi River Authority is implementing a tight water allocation schedule that has seen Zimbabwe and Zambia reducing their generation. Kariba power station is generating at an average of 292MW out of a dependable or an installed capacity of 1 050MW due to low water levels,” Minister Moyo said.

An average of 200MW had been secured from import arrangements with ESKOM of South AFrica and EDM and HCB of Mozambique to help cover the electricity shortfall.

Legislators brought up the still unbuilt 100MW Gwanda solar station, a contract awarded to Intratrek Zimbabwe Limited, led by businessman Wicknell Chivayo. Intratrek and ZPC have been engaged in a protracted legal battle.

In his response, Minister Moyo said the stalling of the project had affected power availability in the country and in his view the project had to unfold for the good of the country.

“On the power generation deficit, I spoke about it earlier especially with reference to the Chivayo issue, as exacerbating the problem that we have. True, that is so. The power that we could be benefiting from that project if that project had taken place would have assisted us in reducing the current deficit. That is agreed. On the logistics of going forward, I indicated that the ball is now between ZPC, ZESA Holdings and Intratek. That is how far I can go,” he said.

“On the public-private-partnership projects, what are the measures to safeguard taxpayers’ money? With each episode of a problem, lessons are learnt on how to structure these agreements. My own view is that there could have been a problem in that agreement. Now that we have structures in Government that are dealing with investments, specialists that have been employed to deal with that like ZIDA, and we also have legal advisors in different departments of Government, this should reduce the risk of weak contractual agreements.”