Power Outages Attributable To Faults, Not Subdued Generation - Govt
Some of the recent power outages in the country have arisen from faults experienced by the power utility, ZESA, on its electricity transmission system, a top government official has said.
Speaking to The Herald in response to the recent power outages, Energy and Power Development Permanent Secretary Gloria Magombo said power generation at the Hwange Thermal Power Plant is up and private businesses have reduced their demand on the grid by installing solar panels.
She said the Government now requires a detailed report from ZESA, explaining the challenges and measures to prevent a recurrence of the problems. Said Magombo:
As Government what we have been working on in the short term is to ensure that ZESA is viable as a company.
The viability of ZESA is quite critical in ensuring that they collect sufficient revenue to ensure that repairs and maintenance of their system are done on time.
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Both Hwange units seven and eight are now back after maintenance and we are very happy about that.
We have other challenges which are beyond us as individuals because of issues of climate change, where the water allocation has been reduced for Kariba.
But we are encouraging more independent power producers to come and do solar so that at least during the day they can provide the additional capacity which we need to keep our system going.
We have also seen the rise of what we call commercial and industrial systems where industries on their own have installed industrial systems on rooftops, including storage and that for us is very good because as Government we have allowed for duty-free importation for these renewable energy systems which are being installed by industry.
So, we have encouraged industry to be also part of the solution by installing these systems. We have several companies which have installed them.
She said the government is aware that there will be a need to increase electricity imports to augment local power generation given that Kariba South is on a reduced capacity due to low water levels in Kariba Dam.
Magombo said ZESA at times experiences system challenges which can affect the whole country resulting in power outages. She said:
I think it’s important to know that at times there is a system fault which affects the system in a country, it’s not an everyday occurrence and I am aware that ZESA is investigating what is the cause and also coming up with solutions to avoid similar occurrences in future.
For us as Government, that is what we demand we are saying yes there is a fault but we want them to be able to produce a report with clear solutions to that fault and how they will in future avoid such similar problems.
That’s an area which as Government we have made our position clear on.
Last week, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) said a fault at the Insukamini 330KV Substation resulted in a loss of electricity across the whole country.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing frequent power outages over the years as supply has fallen behind demand.
Climate change, which has reduced Lake Kariba inflows, ageing equipment at Hwange Power Station, and a lack of investment in the energy sector, among other factors, have contributed to Zimbabwe’s electricity crisis.
On 10 January 2023, the country was generating a total of 951MW, against a peak demand of 1 850MW.
More: Pindula News
