THE Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) says it expects a slight improvement in power supplies this week following major repairs at Hwange Power Station (HPS) and Kariba’s electricity generating units.
BY VICTORIA MTOMBA
An official who declined to be named yesterday said power outages witnessed in the last few weeks were due to technical faults at Hwange and Kariba.
As of yesterday, Hwange Power Station was generating 287megawatts against its normal supply of 600MW due to a technical faults at some its units.
“Three units are running and by the end of day four the situation should improve. We expect HPS Unit 6 to be back in service today (yesterday). Still at HPS Unit 5 is being inspected after a breakdown.
“Its return to service can only be determined after inspection. We look forward to Kariba Unit 6 to be back on stream next week to further reduce load shedding,” the official said.
The source said unit four at Hwange Power Station is on a major overhaul and unit six has a tube leak and Kariba unit 6 is on speed governor upgrade and annual maintenance.
As of yesterday, the country’s power out stood at 1 081MW against a national demand of 2 200MW. Zimbabwe, just like its regional counterparts, has been experiencing excessive power over the past years as demand has outstripped supply.
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To mitigate the shortages, government last year signed contracts for the expansion of Hwange Power Station and Kariba South Extension that will see over 600MW of power being added to the national grid by 2017.
The power projects will be undertaken by Sino Hydro a Chinese company at a cost of $1,3 billion.
