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Power utility Zesa Holdings is exporting power to two neighbouring countries in the evenings when demand is low, an official has said.
Zimbabwe has a power deficit of up  to 800MW, but produces a surplus in the evenings, which is sold to Namibia  and at times to Snel, the power utility for the Democratic Republic of  Congo.

Electricity trading and operations manager at Zesa Holdings’ National Control Centre (NCC) Engineer John Diya said while the country faced a deficit during the peak hours, supply at most times exceeded demand after 9pm.

The NCC, which is linked to all of  the country’s power stations as well as regional power utilities, plays the  critical role of balancing power supply and demand through implementing load shedding.

Zesa Holdings says peak times for  demand are from 6am to 9am as well as 6pm to 9pm. It is at times when there is low demand  that the power utility exports to other countries.

Engineer Diya said Zimbabwe was currently only importing power from Mozambique.
“We have not been getting power for the past two years from Snel, they are actually buying power from us in the evenings,” he said.

He said the country could not get power from regional utilities to meet the deficit as they were also struggling to meet demand.
Officials at the power utility said Namibia had moved part of its industry operations to evenings when demand for power is low.

A similar proposal, for some industries to undertake production processes in the evenings when power is readily available has been made by Zesa Holdings, but has received a deaf ear from stakeholders.  Local industry has been hit hard by power cuts. — New Ziana.