Power outages explained

SAMUEL UNDENGEAuxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
THE government is in the process of engaging the Southern Africa Power Pool to address the recurring power outages that have hit regional countries, including Zimbabwe.

Zesa has increased load shedding to include times that are outside its advertised schedules, disrupting business operations and plunging homes into darkness for long periods.

In an interview yesterday, Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Undenge said the recurring power outages in the country were mainly caused by grid disturbances within the region.

“The current power outages the country has been experiencing are a result of grid disturbances in the region. Zimbabwe is at the centre and any disturbance in South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique affects the national grid,” said Undenge

The minister said the power problems began due to a fault in Zambia.

“The first power outage experienced two weeks ago was as a result of a loss of 600 megawatts in the Copper Belt in Zambia,” said Undenge.

The energy minister said the Southern Africa Power Pool would soon be meeting to discuss how the region would work to deal with the power crisis that has hit the region. “We’re managing . . . the situation is under control but we’ll soon be meeting as the Sadc power utilities association to discuss how we can solve the crisis,” said Undenge.

Last Sunday, almost half of Zimbabwe was plunged into darkness as a result of loss of power at the Hwange Power Station.

Meanwhile, in a statement yesterday, Zesa explained that the increase in load shedding was mainly caused by the intermittent loss of generation at the power station.

Zesa Public Relations manager Fullard Gwasira said Zimbabwe encountered two power systems disturbances (power swings) on May 17 and 18 causing loss of three units at Hwange Power Station.

He said after the May 18 disturbance, Zesa had taken measures to negotiate extra power from the region to mitigate against the supply-demand mismatch and was engaging the SAPP with a view to tackle the challenges associated with regional network instability.

He said the increase in the number of power disturbances is attributed to the worsening power crisis, especially in South Africa resulting in utilities operating without a generation reserve margin.

“The power supply from South Africa, in both instances, was disconnected from the rest of our network and remained supplying the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province. After the incident of 17th May, Hwange Power Station had managed to bring back three units by 12.34hrs on 18th May before our network was hit again by another power swing,” said Gwasira.

He explained that a power swing happens when there is a sudden change in the direction of power flow caused by either loss of generation or loss of a large chunk of load on the interconnected power system.

“The year 2015 has seen Zimbabwe experiencing one blackout with the last time the country has experienced a blackout being in 2011. Zimbabwe is generally affected more than other power utilities in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) network as it’s geographically at the centre of the regional system. As a result, almost all international power flow pass through Zimbabwe with the result that any disturbances in neighbouring utilities result in power swings on the Zimbabwean network,” added Gwasira.

Zimbabwe has been experiencing crippling power shortages, with national demand at peak periods estimated at 2,200MW, against available generation of about 1,000MW.

The country has been importing electricity from regional power utilities to cover the shortfall, but this has also not been enough to meet demand and power problems within regional countries have worsened the situation.

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