Zimbabwe power black outs to worsen

Power cuts blighting Zimbabwe will get worse until early next month due to reduced generation at Kariba and statutory maintenance at Hwange.

The two power stations account for most of the country's power supply needs, but even in the absence of the temporary setbacks, fall short of demand.

Little contribution, however, comes from Harare, Bulawayo and Munyati small thermal stations, which are operating at grossly suppressed capacity.

A similar exercise at Hwange thermal station between August and September 2012 took a total of 160 megawatts out of the national power grid.

Power utility Zesa Holdings were not available yesterday to shed light on the extent of the loss to the national grid due to maintenance at Hwange. But the 750 megawatt Kariba South station will scale down output to a maximum 475MW after Zambezi River Authority cut down water allocation.

Zesa Holdings earlier said the reduced water allocation will also affect permitted maximum power generation for Zambia from 1080MW to 305MW.