JUST IN: Five Units now up at Hwange station as ZESA eases loadshedding, promises power over festive season – NewZimbabwe.com

By Leopold Munhende, Chief Correspondent

FIVE of Hwange Thermal Power Station’s six units are now up, with additional power now being imported from neighbouring countries, to end weeks of 18-hour loadshedding schedules.

According to power utility ZESA, broken down units at Hwange have been fixed, which explains the improvement.

At the height of its loadshedding, ZESA was only producing power from two units at Hwange.

Communication shared to NewZimbabwe.com by ZESA, indicates it now has sufficient supply to last through the festive season.

“We have increased generation at the Hwange Power Station by getting the broken down Units back up, resulting in Five (5) of the Six (6) being currently operational which has increased supply to the national grid,”reads ZESA’s statement.

“This will help ease the demand supply gap during the festive break as we also anticipate reduced demand from the business sector during the period.

“We have successfully managed to secure the injection of additional imports from other Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) members to support supply until the Kariba reservoir recovers in the first quarter of next year.”

ZESA’s Hwange station is now prone to breakdowns as it has outlived its lifespan.

Units 7 and 8 which are under construction are set to be commissioned next year, adding 600MW of power to the national grid.

Added ZESA: “ZESA would like to assure its valued customers that they will not experience the aggressive load curtailment they have been experiencing in the past few weeks during the festive period. The utility is conversant of the need to guarantee supply to the nation, and thus we not only have measures to mitigate the emergency but also have opportunities to increase capacity and to improve service delivery.”