News / National
'The pain will ease,' says Mugabe
02 Oct 2015 at 06:22hrs | Views
THE government has set in motion an aggressive power generation plan which will see solar energy being harnessed to complement hydropower from Lake Kariba and thermal electricity extracted at Hwange, President Robert Mugabe said yesterday.
Speaking for the first time on a crippling power crisis triggered by low water levels at Kariba and unavoidable maintenance work at Hwange, President Mugabe said the pain being felt across the country was not a permanent situation.
Zimbabwe is experiencing some of its worst power cuts, some lasting up to 24 hours, worsened by routine maintenance at Hwange and Kariba, its two largest power plants.
Moments after touching down at the Harare International Airport from New York where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, the President told thousands of Zanu-PF supporters that the energy crisis could not be blamed on Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Undenge. This followed pointed media criticism of the minister, with an editorial in the Sunday Mail imploring him to "show he is in charge? that he is not sleeping at the wheel."
Said President Mugabe: "Some may want to blame Minister Undenge. Undenge is not the one who manufactures electricity. Electricity is generated by drawing water from Kariba Dam through the turning of turbines. When dam levels are low, the generating capacity is also low. This previous year we received low rainfall.
"We were warned before that this year water levels will be low and as such power generation will be low as well. "We also generate thermal power from Hwange. We've six generating units there just like in Kariba. The challenge that we have with thermal power from Hwange is that coal has some impurities that disrupt smooth running of the machinery and that requires constant cleaning.
"When cleaning the machinery, they switch off some of the units resulting in low generation of power. We've proposed for quick implementation of alternative power sources that do not require water or coal such as solar. We said harness that heat from the sun and convert it into electricity - that is the solar energy we're talking about - electricity from the sun.
"What's expensive are the panels used to draw the heat. If you look along [Harare] Airport road, there're some small solar panels fitted to harness solar power. So all this requires time to implement, and as such power outages are inevitable not only here in Zimbabwe but in other countries such as Zambia and South Africa.
"We've to wait for the rains and the work that is underway to harness solar energy. After that, our country will have abundant power. We could have done some of these things long back, but we've shortage of resources as a country." Undenge said on Wednesday that he was seeking special Cabinet approval to speed through solar tenders which have been held up in bureaucratic bungling by the State Procurement Board.
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority has licensed independent solar power producers with a total installed capacity of 155 megawatts which are at various stages of development, Undenge said, but the main progress he wanted to see was at tendered sites in Gwanda, Insukamini and Munyati with a capacity to produce another 300 megawatts.
"It has now been two years and no tender has been awarded due to bureaucratic processes at the State Procurement Board," Undenge said. "Noone has been frustrated by this delay than myself. I've accordingly sought the authority of Cabinet to access the technical and financial capacities of the tendering companies and make recommendations to Cabinet for its decision so that the projects can be implemented as soon as possible."
In Parliament yesterday while taking questions from Senators, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said: "The issue of power generation cannot be achieved overnight, it requires heavy investment and we are already seized with that matter and we regard power generation as our number one priority in order to have a good basis for economic recovery.
"What has exacerbated the situation right now has been the drought. In the past, this drought was affecting just Zimbabwe but now it has affected not only Zimbabwe, but Zambia and Angola. The water levels at Kariba Dam are declining, all this because the rains did not come as we expected in the Angola-DRC border where the water for the Zambezi River originates.
"That is the explanation. We're not to blame as government. It's an act of God that there're droughts. But clearly as government, we've taken measures to address that problem in the long term because most power generation projects require heavy investment."
He said some of the long-term projects that the government was implementing included the Kariba South expansion that would add about 300MW to the national grid by 2018, while financial closure for the Hwange Thermal Power station to add about 600MW was at an advanced stage.
The country's power generation is currently around 1,000MW, less than half its peak demand, forcing local industries and households to use costly diesel generators to keep operations running.
According to Undenge, when all the new and refurbished power stations are operating at full capacity by no later than 2018, Zimbabwe would be producing in excess of 4,000 megawatts against a local demand of 2,100 megawatts.He said this meant that the country would have over 1,900 megawatts ready for the export.
The government recently issued 13 licences for hydropower and thermal power worth a combined $10 billion to independent power producers.
These include the 600 megawatt China Africa Sunlight Energy plant at the confluence of Gwayi-Shangani rivers, the 600 megawatt Southern Energy Thermal Power Station at Hwange, the 600 megawatt plant at Lusulu Thermal Power Station in Binga, the 600 megawatt Lubu Thermal Power Station in Binga which will involve Sable Mine and CITIC company from China and the 400 megawatt Sengwa Thermal Power Station in Gokwe.
Speaking for the first time on a crippling power crisis triggered by low water levels at Kariba and unavoidable maintenance work at Hwange, President Mugabe said the pain being felt across the country was not a permanent situation.
Zimbabwe is experiencing some of its worst power cuts, some lasting up to 24 hours, worsened by routine maintenance at Hwange and Kariba, its two largest power plants.
Moments after touching down at the Harare International Airport from New York where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, the President told thousands of Zanu-PF supporters that the energy crisis could not be blamed on Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Undenge. This followed pointed media criticism of the minister, with an editorial in the Sunday Mail imploring him to "show he is in charge? that he is not sleeping at the wheel."
Said President Mugabe: "Some may want to blame Minister Undenge. Undenge is not the one who manufactures electricity. Electricity is generated by drawing water from Kariba Dam through the turning of turbines. When dam levels are low, the generating capacity is also low. This previous year we received low rainfall.
"We were warned before that this year water levels will be low and as such power generation will be low as well. "We also generate thermal power from Hwange. We've six generating units there just like in Kariba. The challenge that we have with thermal power from Hwange is that coal has some impurities that disrupt smooth running of the machinery and that requires constant cleaning.
"When cleaning the machinery, they switch off some of the units resulting in low generation of power. We've proposed for quick implementation of alternative power sources that do not require water or coal such as solar. We said harness that heat from the sun and convert it into electricity - that is the solar energy we're talking about - electricity from the sun.
"What's expensive are the panels used to draw the heat. If you look along [Harare] Airport road, there're some small solar panels fitted to harness solar power. So all this requires time to implement, and as such power outages are inevitable not only here in Zimbabwe but in other countries such as Zambia and South Africa.
"We've to wait for the rains and the work that is underway to harness solar energy. After that, our country will have abundant power. We could have done some of these things long back, but we've shortage of resources as a country." Undenge said on Wednesday that he was seeking special Cabinet approval to speed through solar tenders which have been held up in bureaucratic bungling by the State Procurement Board.
"It has now been two years and no tender has been awarded due to bureaucratic processes at the State Procurement Board," Undenge said. "Noone has been frustrated by this delay than myself. I've accordingly sought the authority of Cabinet to access the technical and financial capacities of the tendering companies and make recommendations to Cabinet for its decision so that the projects can be implemented as soon as possible."
In Parliament yesterday while taking questions from Senators, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said: "The issue of power generation cannot be achieved overnight, it requires heavy investment and we are already seized with that matter and we regard power generation as our number one priority in order to have a good basis for economic recovery.
"What has exacerbated the situation right now has been the drought. In the past, this drought was affecting just Zimbabwe but now it has affected not only Zimbabwe, but Zambia and Angola. The water levels at Kariba Dam are declining, all this because the rains did not come as we expected in the Angola-DRC border where the water for the Zambezi River originates.
"That is the explanation. We're not to blame as government. It's an act of God that there're droughts. But clearly as government, we've taken measures to address that problem in the long term because most power generation projects require heavy investment."
He said some of the long-term projects that the government was implementing included the Kariba South expansion that would add about 300MW to the national grid by 2018, while financial closure for the Hwange Thermal Power station to add about 600MW was at an advanced stage.
The country's power generation is currently around 1,000MW, less than half its peak demand, forcing local industries and households to use costly diesel generators to keep operations running.
According to Undenge, when all the new and refurbished power stations are operating at full capacity by no later than 2018, Zimbabwe would be producing in excess of 4,000 megawatts against a local demand of 2,100 megawatts.He said this meant that the country would have over 1,900 megawatts ready for the export.
The government recently issued 13 licences for hydropower and thermal power worth a combined $10 billion to independent power producers.
These include the 600 megawatt China Africa Sunlight Energy plant at the confluence of Gwayi-Shangani rivers, the 600 megawatt Southern Energy Thermal Power Station at Hwange, the 600 megawatt plant at Lusulu Thermal Power Station in Binga, the 600 megawatt Lubu Thermal Power Station in Binga which will involve Sable Mine and CITIC company from China and the 400 megawatt Sengwa Thermal Power Station in Gokwe.
Source - chronicle
