Zesa losing 20percent power through faulty network

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority is losing more than 20 percent of its electricity through poor infrastructure, Energy minister has said.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a power deficit with peak demand of 2 200 MW against generation and imports of 1 100MW and government has encouraged independent private producers (IPPs) to step in to cover the deficit.

The power utility said Zimbabwe will experience more power outages over the next three weeks due to low energy supplies and maintenance work being carried out at Kariba South power station.

This also comes amid revelations that ZESA through its subsidiary Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), has increased the amount of electricity it is exporting to Namibian power utility Nampower amid local blackouts.

Energy minister Dzikamai Mavhaire said his ministry was working to ease power shortages in the country.

“We should also continue to rehabilitate our old plants and this is what we are doing now. The bottom line is that, we are not going to wait to improve our power generation but to improve our transmission lines because currently we are losing 20 percent of our electricity through our transmission lines,” said Mavhaire.

Mavhaire said by the end of this year, ZESA would have replaced all the copper wires with aluminium to minimise cable theft.

He also revealed that the government would this week sign a $1.1billion deal with Sino-Hydro for expansion of Hwange Thermal Power Station.-The Source

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