News / National
ZESA adds 160mw to national grid
25 Aug 2019 at 18:49hrs | Views
Refurbishment work on Hwange thermal power station unit 5 has been completed and from this Saturday the unit has been providing an additional 160 megawatts to the national grid. Unit 6 is scheduled to be opened up for inspection and fault diagnostics soon, according to the Minister of Energy and Power Development Advocate Fortune Chasi.
Speaking to the ZBC News this Sunday afternoon, Minister Chasi revealed that productive sectors such as mining, manufacturing and farmers are going to be prioritised in the distribution of power.
Minister Chasi said unit 5 has since been repaired meaning an additional 160 megawatts onto the national grid. Refurbishment of Unit 6 at HPS is starting first week of September and it ill unlock an additional 170 megawatts to augment generation. The Hwange Thermal Power Station is the biggest power plant in Zimbabwe with an installed capacity of 920 MW.
"Let me also appeal to the public to please pay your bills and to avoid power threats. Theft of power transformers is prevalent issue at the moment. It doesn't matter how much power we have if we don't have transformers we will not be able to deploy the power.
Its very important for our economy to continue to be operational even under the conditions that we are operating under. Agriculture in particular a lot of farmers are under stress as a result of insufficient power. So ZESA is under instruction to provide as much power to farmers as well as well other productive sectors like mining and manufacturing.it is very important for the public to understand that domestic users will experience load shedding in favour of productive sectors.
The levels of payment of debt remember ZESA is owed in excess of 1,2 billion by all sectors of consumers. There hasn't been any appreciable improvement in the payment of that debt. It is absolutely critical if we are going to turn around the power sector to pay that debt. That is what will enable us to import power, to service our loans and o service our equipment," he said.
Speaking to the ZBC News this Sunday afternoon, Minister Chasi revealed that productive sectors such as mining, manufacturing and farmers are going to be prioritised in the distribution of power.
Minister Chasi said unit 5 has since been repaired meaning an additional 160 megawatts onto the national grid. Refurbishment of Unit 6 at HPS is starting first week of September and it ill unlock an additional 170 megawatts to augment generation. The Hwange Thermal Power Station is the biggest power plant in Zimbabwe with an installed capacity of 920 MW.
"Let me also appeal to the public to please pay your bills and to avoid power threats. Theft of power transformers is prevalent issue at the moment. It doesn't matter how much power we have if we don't have transformers we will not be able to deploy the power.
Its very important for our economy to continue to be operational even under the conditions that we are operating under. Agriculture in particular a lot of farmers are under stress as a result of insufficient power. So ZESA is under instruction to provide as much power to farmers as well as well other productive sectors like mining and manufacturing.it is very important for the public to understand that domestic users will experience load shedding in favour of productive sectors.
The levels of payment of debt remember ZESA is owed in excess of 1,2 billion by all sectors of consumers. There hasn't been any appreciable improvement in the payment of that debt. It is absolutely critical if we are going to turn around the power sector to pay that debt. That is what will enable us to import power, to service our loans and o service our equipment," he said.
Source - zbc
