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Hwange has been producing 500 mega-watts and the shutdown has left the country with the 802MW from Kariba and Munyati power stations and imports from the region.
Zimbabwe needs at least 1 650MW, which rises to about 2 000MW in winter.

Zesa spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira on Monday confirmed that all five electricity generating units at Hwange Ther-mal Power Station were down.
He would not give details of the technical faults and insisted they were system disturbances common with power generation.

Mr Gwasira said refurbishment would be done in phases and no specific date could be given for a return to normal service.
“Hwange is totally down at the moment due to disturbances within our generating systems and we are making efforts to restore power to our valued customers.

“We expect the first unit to be restored today (Monday) because the refurbishment is in phases.
“At the moment we are banking on Kariba and Munyati, which are generating 625 and 30 megawatts respectively.

“We are also importing 147 megawatts from our regional suppliers. What this means is that load-shedding will increase outside the announced schedules,” he said.
By yesterday there were reports that Zesa had repaired two generators while its engineers were making efforts to resu-scitate the other three units.

Mr Gwasira urged consumers to use power sparingly to alleviate the effects of load-shedding.
Kariba is also operating below capacity due to scheduled annual maintenance work.

At full capacity, Kariba generates 750MW.
Work at Kariba Hydropower Station started last month and has reduced generating capacity at the station.
Due to limited resources, Zesa is only importing 147MW from regional suppliers, which is not enough to cover the shortfall on the national grid.

Mr Gwasira said consumers owed Zesa over US$400 million.
He added that the power utility had no plans to avoid work stoppages in industries due to the load-shedding.
Industry, through representative associations, has said it needs at least 18 hours of power supply daily to operate optimally.

Mr Gwasira said Zesa could not import as much electricity as they might require because customers were defaulting in paying bills.
The US$400 million is believed to be enough to cover Zesa’s external debt obligations and import more power.
The power utility recently announced that load-shedding would continue until year-end.