Business / Economy
Zimbabwe begins mandatory 10% blending
12 Oct 2013 at 04:49hrs | Views
Zimbabwe will from Tuesday begin the mandatory 10 percent blending of country's fuel as the country moves to cut its fuel importation bill and use the money for other developmental projects, Energy and Power Development Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire has said.
Speaking after a tour of the Chisumbanje Green Fuel plant yesterday, Minister Mavhaire said the country could not continue to lose money importing fuel while it had projects like the ethanol plant. Government has set a phased 10 percent mandatory blending for October 15, 15 percent for Nov 31 and 20 percent by March 30, 2014.
Mavhaire said the ethanol plant would start feeding 10 megawatts of power into the national grid by December this year.
"Beginning next week we will introduce E10, which means 10 percent of the blend will be ethanol. Before the end of year we will come up to 15 percent and before April 2014 our target is to increase the ethanol component of the blend to E20 which is our ultimate target," he said.
Mavhaire, who is on tour of power generation programmes in the country, said Zesa and Green Fuel had agreed to share the cost of erecting a power line that would ferry the power to Mkwasine sub station where it would be integrated into the national grid.
"The final decision is that Zesa and Green Fuel have agreed to share 50-50 the cost of erecting the line that will feed the national power to the national grid.
"Zesa will play its part through electrical units and we have agreed that by first week of December the power should be transmitted to the national grid.
"This is a temporary line and will be upgraded as the production increases.
"The line that we are putting will introduce 10 megawatts into the national grid with the remaining four megawatts being set aside for local use. This means the two issues that were nagging at this plant have been resolved.
"We expect the process to move without hitches," he said.
Green Fuel is exporting only four megawatts of its production of 14 megawatts into the national grid because the transmission line could not carry the total amounts.
Zesa general manager Southern region Engineer Milton Munodawafa said work on the power line would start soon.
Speaking after a tour of the Chisumbanje Green Fuel plant yesterday, Minister Mavhaire said the country could not continue to lose money importing fuel while it had projects like the ethanol plant. Government has set a phased 10 percent mandatory blending for October 15, 15 percent for Nov 31 and 20 percent by March 30, 2014.
Mavhaire said the ethanol plant would start feeding 10 megawatts of power into the national grid by December this year.
"Beginning next week we will introduce E10, which means 10 percent of the blend will be ethanol. Before the end of year we will come up to 15 percent and before April 2014 our target is to increase the ethanol component of the blend to E20 which is our ultimate target," he said.
Mavhaire, who is on tour of power generation programmes in the country, said Zesa and Green Fuel had agreed to share the cost of erecting a power line that would ferry the power to Mkwasine sub station where it would be integrated into the national grid.
"The final decision is that Zesa and Green Fuel have agreed to share 50-50 the cost of erecting the line that will feed the national power to the national grid.
"Zesa will play its part through electrical units and we have agreed that by first week of December the power should be transmitted to the national grid.
"This is a temporary line and will be upgraded as the production increases.
"The line that we are putting will introduce 10 megawatts into the national grid with the remaining four megawatts being set aside for local use. This means the two issues that were nagging at this plant have been resolved.
"We expect the process to move without hitches," he said.
Green Fuel is exporting only four megawatts of its production of 14 megawatts into the national grid because the transmission line could not carry the total amounts.
Zesa general manager Southern region Engineer Milton Munodawafa said work on the power line would start soon.
Source - herald
