The government has said they don’t know when the current electricity supply interruptions {load shedding} which Zimbabweans are currently facing will end, as the government is struggling to repair faults at Hwange and Kariba Power Stations.
The response comes after legislators challenged energy minister Soda Zhemu over the issue during Parliament’s question and answer session on Wednesday.
The main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Highfield MP Eric Murai asked Soda during the sessions that; “As citizens of Zimbabwe, we are experiencing a lot of consistency in load shedding.
“For the past two weeks, we have experienced the worst load shedding ever. May you clarify if you have got any plans to provide a consistent supply of electricity to the citizens?”
Minister Zhemu responded that the increased supply interruptions were due to ongoing repair work at the country’s key power generation plants.
“It is true that last week we experienced the worst in terms of load shedding,” he said.
“That was occasioned by the failure of one of our units at Kariba Power Station. Unit 6 went out of the grid last week which produces about 125 megawatts.
“We also had problems with generation from Hwange Power Station where for the major part of last week, the station was running on two units but by the end of last week, two units had been recovered from Hwange Power Station.
“By yesterday (Tuesday), the generation had risen to 407 megawatts from Hwange Power Station.”
The load-shedding has adversely impacted key service institutions with Bulawayo provincial medical director Marphios Siamuchembu recently pleating with power utility ZESA to spare city hospitals.
“These power cuts are already piling more costs in some hospitals such as Ingutsheni and Ekusileni Hospital that now have to rely on generators, yet fuel prices have been going up,” Siamuchembu said.
“The hospitals cannot do anything about load shedding and fuel prices but the government should just make sure hospitals are exempt from load shedding, or ensure that they have adequate fuel for backup if they can’t be exempt.”
Asked to give a timeline on when the load shedding would ease, Zhemu said, “We would not know these interventions because currently we are working on aged equipment.
“We can only give assurance when Hwange Power Station is up and running, that is Unit 7 and Unit 8. That is when we will have self-sufficiency from internal generation.”
He added; “… on expansion of the power station, there are two units which will be coming through; one by the end of this year, that is unit 7 which will be producing 300 megawatts. “We will also be having another unit, unit 8 coming through in the first quarter of 2023. We will also see the rehabilitation of Hwange power station which is now very old.
“The intention is to bring it back to its installed capacity of 900 megawatts.”
Zimbabwe doesn’t produce enough of its own power and relies on imports from neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia to meet demand.
The country generates an estimated 1,300 megawatts against an installed capacity of 2,240 megawatts owing to aging equipment and frequent breakdowns at power plants.
