adminThe Export-Import Bank of China will provide a $1,2bn loan to upgrade two generators at Zimbabwe Power Company’s (ZPC’s) Hwange thermal power plant, the country’s biggest.
ZPC, a unit of state-owned power utility Zesa Holdings, has raised concern that decisions by the State Procurement Board have been snarled by bureaucracy, delaying tenders for the replacement of ageing equipment at Hwange in the country’s west. Daily power blackouts due to electricity shortages have hurt mines and businesses.
Government officials agreed to the deal, Zesa spokesman Noah Gwariro said by phone on Monday from Harare. He did not have further details about the loan terms.
Hwange generates between 380MW and 400MW of electricity against its installed capacity of 920MW. The country’s next largest generation facility is the Zesa-operated Kariba hydropower plant in northern Zimbabwe, which is operating at half of its 750MW capability because water levels in the dam have fallen amid a drought.
Zesa’s Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company unit borrowed $150 million from African Export-Import Bank, commercial director Ralph Katsande said on November 19. The funds would help the operator pay off existing debt and purchase equipment, said a person familiar with the agreement who asked not to be identified because the transaction was private. – Bloomberg.
Online Reporter