Great news for Zimbabweans! The government has a plan to ease the long hours of loadshedding, and Energy and Power Development Minister Edgar Moyo shared the details.
According to Moyo, relief is expected by the end of this month when one of the units at Hwange Power Station becomes operational. The ministry has a roadmap in place, already approved by the Cabinet, outlining its strategy to address the energy issue until 2025. The plan aims to eliminate imports, boost solar generation, and enhance power production efficiency by repowering units one to six at Hwange.
The current loadshedding situation is due to reduced power generation at Kariba Dam caused by low water levels, generating only 250 to 300 megawatts compared to the usual 1050 megawatts. Additionally, at Hwange, Unit 7 tripped two weeks before its scheduled maintenance.
Moyo revealed that Unit 4, which has been down due to faults, is expected to come online by the 21st of this month. Once Unit 7 is back in operation, repairs on Units 1 to 6 will commence.
Moyo emphasized that the repair process will be gradual, taking one unit offline at a time. While acknowledging it will take some time, Moyo expressed confidence in ongoing independent power production projects which he expects to provide up to 600 megawatts.
“We are going to begin to experience reduced load shedding at the end of November when Unit 7 comes on board. We are working on repowering Units 1 to 6 and each time we are repowering these units, we are going to be taking one unit out at a time.
Once it is repaired, we take another unit. It is going to take a little bit of time, but however, we are banking mainly on independent power production projects that are ongoing and can give up to about 600 megawatts,” Edgar Moyo said.
Source iHarare
