Zesa blackouts continues

THE country has been receiving erratic supply of electricity this week due to recurring faults at the Kariba and Hwange power stations, resulting in prolonged load shedding, a senior Zesa official said yesterday.

Zesa spokesperson Fullard Gwasira could not say when the situation would normalise, raising fears that the blackouts might continue for some time.
Most parts of the country have been subjected to load shedding lasting up to 18 hours, with no immediate explanation from the power utility.

A majority of suburbs in Bulawayo had power cut on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning with households spending the day and night without power.

In Famona, residents said they went 16 hours without power only to be restored at 7AM on Thursday. Supplies were cut 30 minutes later.

Other affected suburbs include Hillside, Waterford, Hillcrest, Nkulumane, Emganwini and Pumula, Gwabalanda and Morningside.

Gwasira said the Hwange and Kariba power stations were not operating at full capacity due to faults.

He said there was maintenance work at the Kariba plant and there was a disturbance in the flow of electricty at the Hwange plant.

"Kariba is producing only 625 megawatts instead of 750 megawatts. Load shedding is a function of demand and supply and consumption determines it. In Kariba one unit is going under maintenance and so it is not working at its full capacity," said Gwasira.

"As of now we lost generation in Hwange yesterday (Thursday) due to disturbances which originated from outside Zimbabwe and up to today units have not been restored and are not in service."