Power cuts to persist: Minister
Zimbabwe on Tuesday suffered a major blackout as major cities were switched off as power generation plunges.
Tuesday’s major blackout exposed government’s lack of preparedness to tackle the power crisis where Zimbabwe can only produce 1029 MW against an installed capacity of 2000MW, a situation that has triggered power cuts.
Major cities, Harare and Bulawayo have not been spared the current load-shedding, with some suburbs going for more than 12 hours without power.
This comes after ZESA, power utility company, warned of more blackouts, as two major thermal stations at Hwange remain down.
The existing Hwange thermal plant’s units are between 34 and 38 years old.
Government has secured a $310 million loan from India’s Export and Import Bank to extend the life of the six old units by up to 25 years.
Government did not immediately respond to this publication.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube sought and obtained Parliamentary approval for the Indian loan in early March 2021.
Enhancing the life of the old units would take up to five years, but would restore generation to 880MW, or 96% of the plant’s initial capacity.
Combined with the two new units 7 and 8, Hwange would have a total of 1,480MW, just about matching the country’s current demand.
In far flung, Nigeria a national electricity grid collapsed on Monday leaving many parts of the country without power.
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