Zesa warns of rainy season power outages

The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has warned customers to heed rolling power outages, mainly driven by perennial challenges that come with the rainy season.
During the rainy season, the electricity infrastructure, particularly cables and poles, are affected usually by falling trees.

Zesa Holdings spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said there would be heavy lightning, thunderstorms, flooding and falling trees on the electricity distribution network resulting in damage to infrastructure and disruption of supplies.

"During the rainy season owing to heavy downpours countrywide trees usually fall on power cables or even poles fall down resulting in power outages," said Mr Gwasira.

"The power utility further advises that due to the heightened number of electrical outages, some faults may take longer to restore than is normally the case.

"We are encouraging our valued customers to report the location of fallen trees on power lines to their nearest Customer Service Centre in order to expedite the restoration of supplies."

Apart from negatively impacting on power supplies, the rainy season also results in some people being electrocuted, mainly when they try to fix the problems on their own.

"In the interest of public safety, consumers must not attempt to repair faults or interfere with electricity infrastructure as that may lead to deaths or serious injuries," said Mr Gwasira.

In the first quarter of 2017, power customers grappled with power outages that took longer to resolve due to the incessant rains that hit the country.

The effect of the rains was felt by both domestic and commercial electricity users. The power challenges were largely caused by faults in electricity distribution because of heavy rains that pounded most parts of the country since late last year.