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WE are concerned that power generation at the Hwange Thermal Power station — the country’s largest electricity generation plant — has ground to a halt due to a technical problem and call on authorities to quickly rectify the glitch to restore normality.

Power generation is one of the key pillars of the government’s much vaunted economic blueprint — the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation — and we are aware of current efforts to ensure optimum electricity supplies.

The government has clinched deals to refurbish and expand the country’s two main power plants — Hwange and the Kariba hydro power station and we feel while these are underway, efforts should be made to always maintain supplies at current levels — even though this might be inadequate to meet the country’s daily requirements. We are also cognisant of the challenges faced by the Zimbabwe Power Company in maintaining its power plants in the wake of an ageing infrastructure and lack of spare parts.

The engineers and technicians at the company are doing a wonderful job under very trying circumstances and we commend them for that. However, the current shutdown at Hwange is cause for grave concern given the importance of the plant to the nation. Hwange contributes 920 megawatts to the national grid and due to the technical problems there, the country’s electricity generation has gone down to 801MW from about 1200MW.

As we reported yesterday, the temporary shutdown at Hwange is set to worsen power outages and cripple operations in productive sectors of the economy. Winter wheat farming is also likely to be affected. Zimbabwe has an average national demand of 2,200MW but it cannot meet this figure due to the obsolete equipment at its five existing power stations.

According to ZPC, the Hwange power plant had been shut down following the loss of a T1A transformer after backup protection. “This led to loss of auxiliary supplies on units 2 and 3 that were in service and subsequently took them out. Unit 1 was taken out of service on April 23 at 19.59HRS following a fire incident on BC2 burner. Inspections are in progress to identify damaged cables,” said ZPC in its daily power update. “Unit 4 was taken out of service on April 25 at 17.08HRS due to LP front shaft vibrations and boiler tube leaks. Works are still in progress.”

The power utility said unit 5 had been down due to poor vacuum since February 5, 2015, at 12.31HRS and “on attempting to return to service, it developed governor challenges”. Repair works were being undertaken on the steam pipe hangers, turbine thrust pads as well as other opportunistic maintenance jobs, it said.

Unit 6 was taken out of service on April 24 due to a boiler tube leak. “Works have been completed and preparations to bring the unit back . . . are in progress,” said ZPC. The shutdown of Hwange leaves the country in a precarious position in terms of power generation.

As at April 27, Bulawayo and Munyati Thermal Power Stations were producing 24 megawatts each while Harare Thermal Power Station and Kariba Hydro Power Station produced 30 megawatts and 723 megawatts respectively. We therefore pray that the problems at Hwange are resolved in the shortest possible time so that the country’s productive sectors are not severely inconvenienced.

We also call on the government to ensure that the planned refurbishment of Hwange and ongoing works at Kariba South are expedited and stick to the set deadlines for completion. Chinese company Sino Hydro is expected to build two units at Hwange at a cost of $1,5 billion and the project is expected to be completed in 42 months from commencement.

It will add 600MW to the national grid. The 300MW Kariba South expansion project is already underway and will cost $500 million. It’s expected to be completed in 2017. Last week we reported that the China Export and Import Bank had withheld funds for the Kariba South Hydro Power expansion until the government clears its previous loan obligations.

The decision is likely to delay completion of the mega electricity project and we hope the authorities will move swiftly to ensure that the funds are released so that work can resume. We are aware of efforts being made by the government to get Treasury to disburse funds towards servicing of these loans and other capital projects and we applaud them.