Source: ZPC misses power supply target | The Financial Gazette October 25, 2016
CASH flow challenges and forced outages at Hwange Power Station resulted in generation in the third quarter falling short of target by 9,14 percent at 1 758,24 Gigawatt Hour.
In a quarterly update, Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) managing director, Noah Gwariro, said the power company also experienced delayed return to service of Turbo-Alternator Number 1 at Harare Power Station, which was anticipated to be back in service by April 2016.
He however said the rotor was finally delivered to site on September 23, 2016 and installation works are in progress, while commissioning was expected to start in October.
“Low availability of the boiler plant at the small thermals, resulting in intermittent operations as well as erratic coal supplies due to inconsistent deliveries from the major suppliers, also consequently contributed to the 9,14 percent negative variance,” he said.
Zimbabwe currently produces about 900 mega watts (MW) of electricity, while it requires 1 400MW at peak. The deficit is being covered through electricity imports from Zambia’s Zesco and from the Hydro Cahora Bassa power plant in Mozambique, as well as South Africa’s Eskom, but due to cash flow constraints, the power company failed to pay resulting in reduced imports.
Gwariro said on projects, the Kariba South Extension project had progressed to 58 percent in the quarter as per schedule. He added that the company remained on target to commission the first unit on December 24, 2017.
He said Sino Hydro representatives were in the country from the June 15, 2016 to the July 8, 2016 to work on finalising all agreements required for financial closure for the Hwange expansion project.
In the period, negotiations between ZPC and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority for water supply agreement for the Harare II repowering project were completed and the agreement is expected to be signed upon confirmation of water charges.
Gwariro said the expression of interest to prequalify Indian bidders for the Bulawayo re-powering project is in progress, and a shortlist of pre-qualified bidders would be sent to ZPC for issuance of requests for proposals documentation once the pre-qualification exercise is completed.
He said ZPC remains committed towards contributing to the country’s economic development and improving the quality of society’s life.
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