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Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
CONSUMERS should brace for increased power cuts following a technical fault at the Hwange Power Station, the power utility Zesa warned yesterday.
Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) managing director, Noah Gwariro, said power production had been interrupted at HPS where Unit 5 of the giant power plant was down.

“On Friday last week it was up but now it is down because some tubes are leaking,” he told Chronicle.
“We are in the process of putting economiser tube leaks and we expect it to be up on June 14.”

Following the fault and increased power consumption as the winter season begins, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) yesterday issued a load shedding schedule which is in force starting on Monday this week.

Bulawayo, Esigodini-rural, Filabusi, Umguza, Plumtree, Tsholotsho and Nyamandlovu are among the places affected by the new load shedding regime.

Bulawayo CBD, residential, industrial and other areas in Matabeleland region have been grouped in cycles from B11 to B75.
Under B11 and B21 category are Western suburbs with the city centre grouped under B23.

Matobo, Bulilima and Plumtree fall under B31 group while Eastern suburbs fall under B71.
Bubi and Lupane fall under B43 with B74 covering Belmont industrial and B75 covering Umzingwane and Filabusi.

According to the schedule, the above areas would be affected by load shedding between 5AM and 1PM and between 1PM and 10PM from Monday to Sunday until further notice.

Comment could not be obtained from Zesa spokesperson Fullard Gwasira whose mobile phone repeatedly rang unanswered yesterday.
However, Bulawayo residents had started complaining over increased power cuts.

In Cowdray Park, residents said power went out early Monday morning and was only switched on around 9PM.
A similar scenario was reported in Famona where residents said the power cuts had gone out of hand.

“It’s now terrible for us because it is too cold to bath using cold water during winter,” said Evelyn Sibanda of Famona.
Of late, the country’s power stations — Hwange, Kariba, Harare, Munyati and Bulawayo — have been generating a combined total of 965 megawatts against demand of 1,630MW.

Internal power generation constitutes 59,2 percent of the power supply with the deficit covered by imports from regional producers.
The country imports 100MW from Hydro Cahora Bassa in Mozambique and 120MW is being exported to Namibia in honour of a deal between Zesa Holdings and Nampower.