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Bianca Mlilo, Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) missed its power generation target by 7,03 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 as a result of the cash shortage and water conservation efforts at Lake Kariba.

Due to the generation of insufficient electricity, Zimbabwe imports additional power worth about $6,6 million from South Africa’s power utility Eskom and Mozambique’s Cahora Basa per month.

In his fourth quarter report for 2016, ZPC managing director Mr Noah Gwariro said liquidity challenges had resulted in delays in the delivery of key components to help achieve improved output.

As at December 30, 2016 total power generation stood at 970MW, with Bulawayo and Munyati power stations producing nothing.

Mr Gwariro said low coal stock levels at the two power stations had led to loss of production time thereby missing set targets.

“A total of 6 282 gigawatts per hour (GWh) of energy was sent out against a target of 6 757GWh for the period January to November 2016. The

cumulative energy sent out is trailing the target for the period by 7,03 percent,” he said.

“Our output for January 2016 to date has been consistently lower than the output in the corresponding months last year due to the ongoing water conservation efforts at Lake Kariba.

“The liquidity crunch did not spare us either, hence, hampering procurement of spares as well as operations at the stations.”

Mr Gwariro said considerable progress had been made towards fulfilling the conditions for the Hwange expansion project, with the loan agreement having been ratified by Parliament on December 7, 2016.

“The limestone supply agreement between Hwange Electricity Supply Company, a special purpose vehicle for the Hwange expansion project, and PPC was signed on December 8, 2016. ZPC expects to reach financial closure for the Hwange expansion project by the end of March 2017,” he said.

Mr Gwariro said the Kariba South Extension project had made remarkable progress from 58 percent in the third quarter to 66 percent towards completion in the fourth quarter.

Local works for the Deka project, he added, are 85 percent complete, and the Exim Bank of India have appointed an independent consultant to assess the cost of the engineering, procurement and construction works.

Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority is owed about $1 billion by domestic and industrial consumers.

@BiancaMlilo