Story by Wellington Makonese
THE government is working with the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to address the power situation following technical faults, which occurred at Hwange Power Station and Harare substation at the weekend, leading to increased load shedding.
Zimbabwe has experienced significant power outages in the past week, owing to technical faults at Hwange Power Station, while faults at other substations have also contributed to the recent power disruptions.
The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Honourable July Moyo and the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere toured the Highfield substation in Harare this Monday to assess the extent of the damage.
“We have had separate incidents in Hwange and Harare which affected supply. Five units shut down because of an incident in Hwange and we lost what we normally get from units 1-4 & 6. Then the incident in Harare we lost it yesterday, the unit here after the fire shut the supply and they have been working hard to restore it.
“This evening they are putting back some units to supply immediately. Restoration will be done by Wednesday. To those affected, I assure them that we will do everything to restore everything. What has happened shows the need to invest in our power stations and there is a need to refurbish them,” Honourable Moyo said.
Zimbabwe Power Company Acting Managing Director, Engineer Nobert Matarutse confirmed that the power utility has also ramped up power generation at Kariba Hydro Power station.
“We have, however, ramped up production at Kariba Power Station and have encouraged those on Net-metering, Captive Power Producers to continue feeding to the National Grid,” he said.
The strategic expansion of the national power grid through the rural electrification programme and operationalization of independent power producers is also on course.
