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Charity Ruzvidzo Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC)’s daily power generation has dropped to below 1,000 megawatts (MW) from an estimated peak of about 1,400 MW largely due to equipment breakdown and repairs.

Zimbabwe is facing power shortages as national power demand at peak periods is estimated at 2,200MW.

Present generation capacity is far outweighed by demand, resulting in the shortfall being imported from regional power utilities.

Yesterday’s statistics from the ZPC indicated generation output had dropped to 989MW with all the five power stations, Hwange Thermal, Kariba Hydro, Harare, Munyati and Bulawayo thermals’ boilers and units undergoing repairs.

Hwange Thermal with an installed capacity of 920 MW was producing 446MW while Kariba Hydro was generating 495MW against an installed capacity of 750MW.

“At Hwange units 1, 3 and 5 are in service. Unit 2 was taken out of service on February 2, 2015 at 03.05 hours for external tube leak and right hand ID fan repairs. The unit ID is expected back in service on February 5.

“Unit 4 was taken out of service on October 10, 2014 for major overhaul works and the revised return to service date is now March 23, 2015,” said ZPC.

Units 1 to 5 at Kariba Hydro are in service while unit 6 was taken out of service on January 4, 2015 for speed governor modernisation and transformer installation.

The three small thermals Munyati, Bulawayo and Harare were generating 24MW, 24MW and 0MW respectively by yesterday morning against their combined installed capacity of up to about 100MW each.

“At Bulawayo Thermal power station boilers 5,9,12,13 and generator 3 and 5 are in service. Boiler 5 is on statutory inspection, boiler 6 is on standby, boiler 10 is on tube leak repairs, generator 3 is out of commission due to ongoing condenser cleaning and generator 5 refurbishment works are to be carried out during the repowering project,” ZPC said.

At Munyati thermal power station boilers 5,6,7,8,10,11 and 14 and generators 4,6 and 7 were undergoing repairs.

Station 2 at Harare was shutdown last August and the station is now awaiting the repowering project to replace the boiler technology while station 3 was shutdown on January 29, 2015 due to low feed water level, said ZPC.

The power producer said tube leak repairs at the station were in progress on boilers 1 and 2.

Power supply remains a major constraint to the country as it affects industrial production and investment attraction.

Efforts are, however, being made to boost power output with the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority having licensed 12 independent power producers (IPPs) with a combined capacity of 5,400MW.

Of the 12, three projects are undertaken by the State-owned ZPC.

A majority of the projects have commenced and are expected to contribute to the national grid in the next five years.