Business / Local
Zimbabwe to import power from SA
05 Dec 2015 at 07:33hrs | Views
ZIMBABWE will add 300 megawatts of electricity to its grid by the end of this month through imports from South Africa to ease incessant power outages while continuing with projects to set up emergency plants.
Speaking at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) 2015 Trade and Investment dinner in Bulawayo on Thursday, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) western region general manager, Lovemore Chinaka, said negotiations for the deal were at an advanced stage.
"There's a negotiation that is pretty much advanced as I'm speaking to you and that one is what is probably going to give us an immediate relief," said Chinaka.
"If everything is done maybe before the end of the month we'll be in a position to import about 300MW from South Africa.
"It's a deal being negotiated between the government of Zimbabwe, the government of South Africa, the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe and there's another association in South Africa that has got that quantum allocated to them, so they've expressed willingness to help."
Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Obert Mpofu, who was guest of honour at the event, said the government will continue pushing for establishment of emergency power plants to reduce incessant blackouts.
"Countries like Mozambique, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia have gone the route of emergency power supplies to alleviate this problem hence Zimbabwe will pursue similar strategies," said Minister Mpofu.
He said the government was also considering exploring opportunities in solar energy.
Chinaka said while the government was pursuing procurement of diesel powered generators for the emergency power plants, there was a need to come up with a fuel duty framework to ensure a reasonable pricing of electricity generated.
"If the government doesn't agree to work on the price of fuel, that'll be used on that generator, then the price of electricity will be very high," he said.
"So the government has a role to play in terms of duties and value added tax (VAT) on the diesel that'll be used on that plant."
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) economic regulations manager, Learnmore Nechitoro, warned the Kariba Power Station's power production capacity was likely to drop further next year given the prevailing drought conditions.
"Given the fact that water levels in Kariba continue going down, the average that the power station is currently producing is 468MW from a potential capacity of 750MW. In 2016 it is likely to be reduced further to 285MW," he said.
"So you can actually see that it's very serious and drastic reduction in power supply coming from one of our major suppliers."
As of yesterday the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) reported daily total power output at 861MW due to some technical faults on the generating units at Hwange Thermal Power Station. Before the technical fault, the generation capacity stood at about 1,300MW with Hwange contributing about 500MW. As a result of the fault at Hwange, the power station was yesterday generating 329MW.
ZPC said the power station's Unit 2 was tripped on Thursday on under-voltage protection after loss of station transformer 2 due to a local voltage dip.
The unit is expected back in service tomorrow while Unit 5 was also out of service since Tuesday after loss of indications following lightning that struck and burnt Powertel fibre optic cable Stage 2 control cables and 220 volts power cables for the administration block and control room.
"The unit initially returned to service on Thursday at 13.32hrs then it tripped at 15.50hrs on lube oil temperature high. A faulty switch was identified as the cause and was replaced. The unit was then synchronised at 18.18 hours on the same day," said ZPC.
It said Unit 6 was tripped on Tuesday at 16.34 hours on poor vacuum following the loss of CW7 pump on winding temperature high.
"Firing is in progress but challenges with vacuum are delaying the return to service. Investigations to the cause of the poor vacuum are in progress," it said.
Over the years, power generation in the country has been subdued to obsolete equipment at the generating plants.
As a result, calls have been made on the need to invest in power generation with the government through Zera having licensed over 20 independent power producers.
Speaking at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) 2015 Trade and Investment dinner in Bulawayo on Thursday, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) western region general manager, Lovemore Chinaka, said negotiations for the deal were at an advanced stage.
"There's a negotiation that is pretty much advanced as I'm speaking to you and that one is what is probably going to give us an immediate relief," said Chinaka.
"If everything is done maybe before the end of the month we'll be in a position to import about 300MW from South Africa.
"It's a deal being negotiated between the government of Zimbabwe, the government of South Africa, the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe and there's another association in South Africa that has got that quantum allocated to them, so they've expressed willingness to help."
Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Obert Mpofu, who was guest of honour at the event, said the government will continue pushing for establishment of emergency power plants to reduce incessant blackouts.
"Countries like Mozambique, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia have gone the route of emergency power supplies to alleviate this problem hence Zimbabwe will pursue similar strategies," said Minister Mpofu.
He said the government was also considering exploring opportunities in solar energy.
Chinaka said while the government was pursuing procurement of diesel powered generators for the emergency power plants, there was a need to come up with a fuel duty framework to ensure a reasonable pricing of electricity generated.
"If the government doesn't agree to work on the price of fuel, that'll be used on that generator, then the price of electricity will be very high," he said.
"So the government has a role to play in terms of duties and value added tax (VAT) on the diesel that'll be used on that plant."
"Given the fact that water levels in Kariba continue going down, the average that the power station is currently producing is 468MW from a potential capacity of 750MW. In 2016 it is likely to be reduced further to 285MW," he said.
"So you can actually see that it's very serious and drastic reduction in power supply coming from one of our major suppliers."
As of yesterday the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) reported daily total power output at 861MW due to some technical faults on the generating units at Hwange Thermal Power Station. Before the technical fault, the generation capacity stood at about 1,300MW with Hwange contributing about 500MW. As a result of the fault at Hwange, the power station was yesterday generating 329MW.
ZPC said the power station's Unit 2 was tripped on Thursday on under-voltage protection after loss of station transformer 2 due to a local voltage dip.
The unit is expected back in service tomorrow while Unit 5 was also out of service since Tuesday after loss of indications following lightning that struck and burnt Powertel fibre optic cable Stage 2 control cables and 220 volts power cables for the administration block and control room.
"The unit initially returned to service on Thursday at 13.32hrs then it tripped at 15.50hrs on lube oil temperature high. A faulty switch was identified as the cause and was replaced. The unit was then synchronised at 18.18 hours on the same day," said ZPC.
It said Unit 6 was tripped on Tuesday at 16.34 hours on poor vacuum following the loss of CW7 pump on winding temperature high.
"Firing is in progress but challenges with vacuum are delaying the return to service. Investigations to the cause of the poor vacuum are in progress," it said.
Over the years, power generation in the country has been subdued to obsolete equipment at the generating plants.
As a result, calls have been made on the need to invest in power generation with the government through Zera having licensed over 20 independent power producers.
Source - chronicle
