Electricity Supply Improves

Dr George Manyaya

Herald Reporters

With the Zambezi River Authority having just allocated Zesa extra Lake Kariba water to generate an average of 500MW at Kariba South, and Hwange 7 generating its designed net output of 300MW, the generation shortfalls are now ameliorated and yesterday were only around 210MW, a huge improvement. Since early December, output at Kariba South was severely limited after the stored flood waters from last year were exhausted and only the low water inflows were available. That saw Kariba South cut to 300MW before the water allocation was raised a little to 350MW in February and now to 500MW. The successful synchronisation of Hwange’s Unit 7 on March 20, followed by the rapid running in to the full 300MW, has seen Hwange Power Station coping with a lot more of the load. Unit 7 has performed well since synchronisation, and now generates up to 335MW, although any output beyond 300MW is used to generate electricity for the power station services. Statistics from Zesa’s power generation unit, the Zimbabwe Power Company, yesterday showed total generation of 1 090MW: with Hwange on 548MW, Kariba south on 506MW, Harare on 12MW and Munyati on 13MW. Zesa general manager responsible for stakeholder relations, communications and welfare Dr George Manyaya yesterday confirmed the power supply had improved, resulting “in reduced load curtailment across most of our customer segments”. “This achievement was as a result of implementation of various measures and the stabilisation of performance of the Hwange Unit 7 which is undergoing commissioning tests and has been able to supply a full load of 300MW to the national grid in some instances,” said Dr Manyaya. ReadMore