Harare, (New Ziana) – The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) saw decreased power generation in addition to reduced energy imports towards the end of last year, a report has shown.
Zimbabwe has an installed power generation capacity of 2 800MW which falls short of the 5 000MW needed to fully support existing industry and households, forcing the country to import electricity from neighbouring Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia to address the shortage.
The country’s power utility, ZESA, is currently producing an average 1 200MW a day, forcing consumers to endure long hours of load shedding or resorting to costly alternatives such as fuel powered generators, especially for business operations.
As of Thursday this week, Hwange Thermal Power Station contributed 665MW from the obsolete units 1 to 6 that are constantly breaking down, with the recently commissioned Hwange 7 and 8 thermal units on maintenance, while Independent Power Producers (IPPs) chipped in with 84MW.
Kariba Hydro Power Station, whose production is also subdued due to poor water levels as a result of recurrent drought affecting the Southern African region, contributed 485MW according to the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), a ZESA subsidiary.
In a 2024 fourth quarter report on electricity generation, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) said the index on power generation was 90.4, reflecting a quarter-on-quarter percentage decrease of 14.5 from 105.8 in the 3rd quarter 2024. The index, however, reflects a year-on-year increase of 2.6 percent when compared to 88.1 recorded in the 4th quarter of 2023.
ZIMSTAT said 487.8 GWh of imported electricity during the quarter reflected a 20.2 percent decrease from the 611.1GWh imported in the 3rd quarter of 2024 despite the year-on-year comparison showing a 28.7 percent increase in electricity imported from the 379.1GWh imported in 4th quarter of 2023.
“About 47.0 percent of the 487.8GWh electricity imported during 4th quarter 2024 was from Eskom (South Africa) while HCB (Mozambique) and EDM (Mozambique)provided 25 percent and 18 percent, respectively,” it said.
“The total volume of electricity distributed during the fourth quarter of 2024 was 2084.2GWh. This reflected a percentage decrease of 8.6 when compared to 2279.5GWh distributed in 3rd quarter 2024. Year-on-year comparison shows a 4.9 percent decrease in electricity distributed when compared to 2,192.2GWh distributed in 4th quarter 2023.”
Manufacturing, transport and construction sectors combined received 776.2GWh of the distributed electricity during 4th quarter 2024.
New Ziana
