US$5m required to resuscitate Harare Power Station

AT least US$5 million is needed to resuscitate the Harare Power Station whose dilapidated machinery, a Zesa Holdings official has said.

Speaking during the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy tour to assess the state of affairs at the power plant, Harare Power Station acting managing director Norbert Mataruse said: "We need about US$5 million for this plant to enable us to get a turbine that is meant for rehabilitation to bring the plant to life. When we look at the whole plant, we need far more. This amount will only get us to 30 megawatts.

"The plants were built in 1942 and 1958 and they are very old and need rehabilitation. What we are focusing on now is for Zesa and Zimbabwe Power Station to repurpose small thermal stations so that investors can come in and take over the running of stations through some kind of agreement."

One of the major challenges, he said, was turbine plants which required about US$3,5 million for repairs.

"We also have other issues to do with boiler pumps and these require about US$50 000 and are repaired in South Africa," Mataruse said.

"Since our boilers are fairly old, we also incur some tube leaks. There are some lines and all the coal we burn produces some ash and this is the solid waste which comes out of the plant and there is some investment which is also needed to make the plant viable."

The power station's bulldozers used to move coal to boilers are currently broken down and the plant is hiring the equipment until its own equipment is repaired.

"The milling plant is quite a major plant, and we require something equivalent to US$516 000, but we need a deposit of US$77 000 for the plant to be manufactured," Mataruse said.

"We have not been able to carry out major operations and this is why our plant is as old as it is and it is now failing because we did not invest enough in terms of keeping that asset valuable."