Zesa power generation improves

Three units at Hwange Thermal Power Station that had been shut down three weeks ago are now back to full production, generating 238 megawatts out of an installed capacity of 920 megawatts.

The power station has been down for three weeks leading to massive load shedding across the country after a fault in South Africa affected the Bulawayo grid.

One of the transformers had been burnt and had disrupted all the six generating units.

A delegation comprising the Deputy Minister of Energy and Power Development, Engineer Munacho Mutezo; Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) General Manager, Engineer Noah Gwariro, among other officials, toured the thermal plant to assess progress made towards bringing the plant back to life.

In an interview, Engineer Mutezo said work is already in progress to install protective systems to curb future problems, adding that it will take time for the sixth unit to start generating.

Zimbabwe has been experiencing a huge power deficit of over 1000 megawatts and the outages in Hwange increased load-shedding with customers concerned over the issue of the power utility.

As of Wednesday, Hwange was generating 238 megawatts, Kariba 750 megawatts, while Harare was producing 34 megawatts.

Munyati and Bulawayo were generating a combined 70 megawatts.

The country is importing 100 megawatts of electricity to augment the local power generating capacity.