Brace for crippling power cuts

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

 

Severe power shortages will force the power utility, ZESA, into imposing a “painful loadshedding” in the coming few months, a senior government official has warned.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Gloria Magombo, told the Economic Policy Dialogue breakfast indaba held by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) recently that the challenges will be felt mainly by businesses.

“We will have a feel of these challenges [deepening power crisis] and I want to just also  forewarn you given that we are expecting an El Nino, which will have an effect on Kariba water levels,” Magombo said.

Zimbabwe contributes about 20% of the inflows into Lake Kariba.

Munyati River feeds Sanyati River, which then supplies water into the lake, but those rivers are hardly flowing due to poor rainy season across Zimbabwe.

The other source is Gwayi River.

The inflow into the lake usually occurs in March or May of each year from the other sources in Zambia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“With El Nino phenomenon predicted, we are not expecting much from these two rivers (Gwayi and Sanyati) hence more power curtailment in the country is expected,” Magombo said.

She added: “We are hoping and praying that   inflows from Zambia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo into the lake will  come in March or May when Barotse plains (or wetlands)  will start releasing water into Kariba. But from now we will certainly experience these power curtailments.”

Rolling power cuts  mean industries and households will be subjected to long hours of crippling outages throughout the country daily.

This means consumers  of electricity should therefore brace for the load-shedding, which will cause serious repercussions on the recovery of the productive sectors of the economy such as mining, manufacturing, agriculture and tourism, which government wants to drive the country’s economic recovery.

The power cuts will erode business confidence because unreliable power supplies will result in significant losses for businesses due to process interruptions that will lower product quality.

Some processes will also be delayed or aborted resulting in failure to meet deadlines and targets for many companies.

It also implies that a large number of businesses will be compelled to use diesel generators, which are costly to operate.

The development is coming at a time when ZESA is battling machine breakdown at its four thermal power stations in Hwange, Harare, Munyati and Bulawayo. The small thermal power stations were commissioned between 1946 and 1958 and have since reached their design life, which is 25 years.

Most of the plants require either life extension measures or complete replacement. Consequently, their generation capacity has seriously declined.

Additionally, Magombo (pictured) stated that cost-reflective tariffs could be necessary for the nation to maintain a steady supply.

“As a government we want to ensure that we address sustainability issues. For many years, electricity has been over subsidised as the power utility charged  around US$0.02 per kilowatt hour due to exchange losses. We need ZESA to have a cost reflective tariff to attract private sector investment.

“When you are an independent producer, one will apply for the review of the tariff,” Magombo said.

According to the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), using generators would increase production costs, forcing producers to raise the price of necessities in order to stay in business.

 

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