A POWER blackout yesterday hit Zimbabwe after the country lost 800 megawatts of electricity due to a system disturbance at Insukamini near Bulawayo.
BY VICTORIA MTOMBA
The unspecified disturbance resulted in the country losing all power imports, but the situation has since been rectified.
Zesa Holdings stakeholder relations manager Fullard Gwasira said the system disturbance occurred around 5:15am and resulted in the country losing power imports from Hydro Cahora Bassa, South Africa and Zambia.
“All power stations except Hwange tripped when the disturbance happened. Hwange Power Station did not trip because of the work that we have been undertaking. Our engineers are working on the issue and by the end of the day (yesterday) power would be restored and so far 95% of the power has been restored,” he said.
Gwasira said the country had only 300 megawatts of power after the system disturbance.
He said Kariba dam has received significant water flows mainly from DRC through Zambia, but these were not enough to run the power station at full throttle.
Zimbabwe is not generating much electricity due to the challenges that it has experienced at Kariba Power Station. Kariba power output has declined due to declining water levels caused by drought.
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The power utility has struck deals with regional power utilities to get power imports. The country requires 2 000 megawatts of power per day.
Various power projects that include solar, biogas, hydro-electricity were currently underway to boost power output for Zimbabwe.
