adminZimbabwe now lagging behind Zambia in refurbishing existing and commencing new electricity generation stations.
The chairman of the Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy, Mr Edward Chindori-Chininga, said this after a recent tour of the expansion works going on the Zambian side of the Kariba Power Station.
Mr Chindori-Chininga said his committee was concerned that Government had not followed up on a Memorandum of Understanding it signed with a Chinese company, Sino Hydro, for the expansion of the project.
Government has put the construction of an additional two units at the power station to tender although Zimbabwe had signed an MoU with the Chinese company that had also promised to mobilise the US$400 million that is needed for the project.
“We have come here at the request of Sino Hydro who wanted to show us what they are doing (in Zambia). They had some agreements with the Ministry of Finance and wanted us to see what they are doing with Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (Zambia’s power utility). There are a number of programmes going on, some that have already started. There is a lot that is going on in Zambia but on our side there is completely nothing,” he said.
He said while the committee was yet to get full details on the MoU signed between Zimbabwe and Sino Hydro, it was imperative that the country moved fast to ensure adequate supply of electricity.
“It is obvious that some form of agreement was signed although we do not have the facts. The committee will meet and evaluate the information that we have and then make a decision on the way forward.
However, the main issue is that enough power should be generated so that industry grows. As you have seen Zambia is now miles away from us.
“We seem to spend too much time politicking instead of refocusing ourselves on national development,” he said.
The director of Sino Hydro, Mr Wu Yifeng, told the committee that after signing the MoU in April, they had also provided the technical details on the expansion in November last year.
“After the signing of the MoU, the Zimbabwe Power Company then wrote to us in October asking for the technical details and we did that in November. We did not receive anything after that and only read in the papers in early July that the matter had been put to tender,” he said.
Mr Wu said his company had been discussing with a bank in China for funding but were also prepared to use their resources while waiting for the finalisation of the deal with the financial institution.
“That is what we have done with the Zambians. The money from the bank was only released this year although construction started in 2008,” said Mr Li Ming the company’s general manager.
Sino Hydro is constructing two more units to the existing four on the Zambian side that would add an extra 360 mega- watts to its national grid. Apart from that it is also working on the Kafue Gorge power station and Itezhi Tezhi.
The company has entered into an agreement with the Zambian government and Mr Chindori-Chininga said it was also important the Zimbabwe Government takes an active role in power development since private players were not willing to invest in the sector.
Zimbabwe is grappling with electricity shortages and has not invested in new power plants. Government intends to expand the Kariba South Power Station that is expected to add 300MW to the existing 750MW.
Zimbabwe needs approximately 2 200MW of electricity per day but is currently producing about 1 500MW and power imports to meet demand. This has resulted in load-shedding to manage demand.
Online Reporter