ZESA disowns social media load shedding message

Harare (New Ziana) – The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has disowned a load shedding schedule that has been circulating on social media for the past fortnight.

In a brief statement issued by its transmission and distribution arm, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), the power utility said it is yet to publicise any load shedding schedule and urged its customers to ignore schedules circulating on social media.

“ZETDC is in the process of finalizing the load shedding schedules which will be published in the mainstream media as soon as they are ready, so as to enable consumers to plan in line with the available power supply situation,” it said.

“The power utility urges consumers to disregard the misleading social media messages and apologises for the inconvenience caused.”

After recording a marked improvement in power supply around July when Hwange units 7 and 8 came online contributing about 600 Megawatts, the country has suddenly found itself battling power shortages after one of the units were taken down for 30-day routine maintenance a fortnight ago.

At the same time Hwange units 1 – 6 with an installed capacity of 960MW are unable to make any significant contribution because most of the units have become too old and equipment obsolete.

The development comes at a time when power generations from the Kariba Hydro Power Plant is subdued due to low water levels in the lake which has experienced successive seasons of poor inflows.

According to the ZESA daily power generation update as of Monday, the country’s power generation stood at 1 106 MW with Hwange contributing 589 MW, Kariba 479 MW and independent power plants chipping in with 38 MW while smaller thermal power stations such as Munyati, Harare and Bulawayo contributed nothing.

New Ziana