Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Power Development has recommended that the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) should attract significant investments in refurbishing existing power plants and constructing new ones by 31 December this year, 2025 to curb the current power crisis.
The country is experiencing length periods of load-shedding because of inadequate supplies.
The committee found that the country has the capacity to produce 2 570 Megawatts
of power from existing power plants but is only producing 1 079 MW, leaving a deficit of 1 560 MW.
According to the World Bank Zimbabwe requires 1 950 MW and this should rise to 5 177 by 2030 when it hopes to become an upper middle income economy.
The Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency says the country requires 4 000 MW right now with the mining sector alone needing half that, 2 000 MW.
The United States’s International Trade Administration says Zimbabwe needs 5 000 MW to fully support existing industry and households.
The World Bank says to meet its power requirements for 2030, Zimbabwe needs to increase annual connections from 25 000 in 2020 to 537 000 annually.
Below are the committee’s recommendations:
- ZESA Holdings should be actively involved in attracting significant investments in refurbishing existing power plants and constructing new ones to overcome the over-reliance on Kariba South and address the observed infrastructure deficiencies by 31st December, 2025.
- The Ministry of Energy and Power Development should diversify the energy mix to mitigate the impact of water constraints on hydroelectric power and enhance overall system reliability by 31st December 2026. In this regard, the Committee recommends for a strategic balance between base load power sources such as thermal and nuclear and renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal.
- Treasury should timely disburse funds to service loans for power projects to ease Zimbabwe’s history of debt servicing challenges and improve the country’s creditworthiness and facilitate access to affordable energy financing.
- The Ministry of Energy and Power Development should invest in renewable energy projects in order to complement private sector efforts and address the funding constraints observed by 31st December 2025.
- The Ministry of Energy and Power Development should implement stringent contract management protocols thorough due diligence, clear performance indicators and effective dispute resolution mechanisms to prevent recurrences of the Gwanda Solar Project debacle by 31st December 2024.
- The Ministry of Energy and Power Development and the Ministry of Finance, Economic and Development Investment Promotion should make deliberate efforts to retain existing talent and attract skilled Zimbabweans in the diaspora to address the critical shortage of skilled personnel in the energy sector by 31st December 2026.
- The Ministry of Energy and Power Development should implement robust revenue collection mechanisms by 31st December 2025, to ensure the financial sustainability of the power sector and support ongoing projects as well as contributing to reducing the government’s financial burden on the sector.
- ZPC and energy contractors should develop an effective communication and collaboration strategy for successful project implementation as a forward-thinking approach that prioritises the national interest that maximises project benefits by 31st December 2025.
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