Govt Releases US$34 Million For Power Imports

The government says it has mobilised US$34 million towards the importation of electricity from regional producers to augment local generation.

Speaking in the National Assembly last week, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said US$34 million is being processed to assist the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) and Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) to import electricity. Said Ncube:

We have intervened in terms of emergency resources to support both ZETDC and ZPC to the tune of US$34 million to source power from outside.

Unfortunately, that is the best we can do immediately and this is being processed over the next seven days.

Ncube also said the government will on Monday, 19 December announce independent power producers (IPPs) that will get support to generate power to meet national demand. He said:

I am happy to report that we have thoroughly concluded the structure and framework of what we call the Government Implementation Agreement to support investment from the Independent Power Producers (IPPS).

It will cover three areas — an appropriate level of tariffs; Government guarantees on the power purchase agreement and also guarantee currency compatibility.

They have asked for these three things and we have put three of the projects on a pilot.

We are now satisfied that we can as Government support GIA to cover those three areas.

Monday next week, we will make a formal announcement and this will go a long way in the medium term in dealing with the power situation.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing one of its worst power crises, with electricity users spending up to 18 hours per day in the dark.

On 19 December 2022, ZPC was generating a total of 672MW from three power stations, Hwange (433), Kariba (221), and Munyati (18). Harare and Bulawayo power stations were not generating anything. | NewsDay