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Hwange thermal power station

Bianca Mlilo, Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE is targeting up to $14 billion investment in several energy infrastructure projects that will yield 5 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2030, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) says.

The anticipated power output would meet domestic industry and household demand with a possibility of surplus sales to the electricity starved region.

Adequate supply of electricity is inextricably linked to economic growth and development as it enables the country to unlock the potential of its productive sectors.

Zera chief executive officer Engineer Gloria Magombo said presently Zimbabwe has an installed capacity of 1 936MW but only produces about 900MW due to ageing infrastructure with total available electricity including imports at 1 276MW.

“To reach this target (5 500MW) we need $1,5 billion for rehabilitation, $2,2 billion for new building infrastructure, $1,5 billion transmission infrastructure and $9 billion from independent power producers through the private sector of public private partnerships. The targeted new capacity is to produce 5 500MW by the year 2030,” said Eng Magombo.

She also said the current maximum demand is no longer at 2 200 MW a day after it declined to around 1 450MW.

“Improvement in electricity supply,” she said, “as well as reliability, through investment in new generation plants has remained the cornerstone of our interventions in the sector, with power imports serving to provide cover for local generation shortfalls.”

Eng Magombo said the success of increasing capacity was dependent on access to competitive project financing and project development funding (both local and international) and a cost-reflective tariff.

Clear and consistent policies and coherent power sector planning would also be imperative to the realisation of this proposal, she said.

Zimbabwe is importing 300MW of electricity from South Africa’s power utility Eskom and another 40MW from Mozambique. Plans are underway for Zesa to start importing an initial 56MW from Zambia, with further plans to add 20MW until it ramped up to 100MW.

This would be done to augment power production in the country. Zimbabwe has various projects that could generate an additional 3 540MW by 2018, said Eng Magombo.

Among these are Gairezi 30MW Hydro Power Project 30MW, 300MW solar projects, Mutare peaking power plant 120MW, coal-bed methane gas 300MW, Kariba South 300MW, Hwange units 7 and 8 expansion 600MW and works on existing plants.

@BiancaMlilo