Zimbabwe power generation down to 772MW

Zimbabwe’s daily power generation has dropped to 772 megawatts from about 1 200MW following a systems disturbance at Hwange Thermal Power Station, the power utility said today.

“There was system disturbance on 23 February 2015 at 23.30hrs that resulted in the station losing two units (1 and 2) that were in service,” said the Zimbabwe Power Company in a statement indicating that as of yesterday, the country was producing 772MW.

Hwange Power Station was presently producing 168MW compared to 500MW before the breakdown.

Kariba Power Station is producing 553MW, Munyati 32 and Harare 19 while Bulawayo Thermal Power Station was idle.

“Kariba Unit 6 was taken out of service on January 4, 2015 at 2217hrs for speed governor modernization and unit transformer installation,” said ZPC.

“Delays were experienced due to the ongoing blasting for the extension project as well as delayed mobilization by the contractor. Static commissioning is in progress whereas dynamic commissioning is expected to start on  February 25, 2015.”

Station 2 at Harare Thermal Power station was shutdown on August 27 last year and the station is  now waiting the repowering project to replace the boiler technology.

At present, Zimbabwe is facing power shortages as national power demand at peak periods is estimated at 2 200MW.

The country generation capacity is far outweighed by demand, resulting in the shortfall being imported from regional power utilities such Hydro Caborra Bassa of Mozambique.

According  to ZPC, the country was importing 100MW from Hydro Cahora Bassa  of Mozambique while exporting 39MW to SNEL of Democratic Republic of Congo.-The Source

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