THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has signed an agreement with the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) aimed at generating 80 megawatts (MW) of electricity at the refurbished Bulawayo Power Station.
By NQOBANI NDLOVU
According to the deal, the local authority is expected to supply 11 megalitres of water per day to ZPC at a cost of $0,63 per kilolitre under the project, which is expected to see an additional 80MW fed onto the national grid to boost power supply in the city.
The ZPC approached the local authority late last year for the implementation of the electricity generation project at the council-owned Bulawayo Power Station.
The project had not commenced pending negotiations and the finalisation of an agreement for sale of water.
“These included negotiations between BCC and ZPC on the tariff price for the 11ML/day treated water (reclaimed) that would be supplied to ZPC. Currently, council was selling treated potable water to the power station at a price of $ 1,04 per kilolitre,” a latest council report of the finance and development committee reads in part.
“It was against this background that after due diligence and wide consultations within city council’s key departments, a cost recovery (life cycle cost) tariff figure of sixty three cents ($ 0,63) was proposed and appended into the water agreement.
“The tariff figure took into account the cost of the infrastructure amortised over 25 years (the expected life of the pipeline) at an interest rate of 6% per annum, average production and maintenance costs.”
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The project will result in the rehabilitation of the Khami Pumping Station and the water treatment plant owned by the council as well as the construction of a 20 kilometre-long raw water pipeline from Khami Dam to the Bulawayo Power Station.
“The pipeline would supply approximately 11ML of raw water per day to the Bulawayo Power Station. In addition, BCC had requested for an additional 4ML/day for its own and industry use — and ZPC has agreed to this,” the council report further read.
“It had been proposed that there would be six take off points along the line. The refurbished Bulawayo Power Station would move away from using treated potable water for power generation purposes.
“This would be achieved by channelling raw water from Khami Dam to Bulawayo Power Station. For this, Khami Dam Water Treatment Plant shall also be refurbished under this project.”