Zim seeks US$2b to avert blackout

HARARE – Zimbabwe requires more than US$2 billion to build a new hydroelectric station, refurbish and expand existing power plants to avert an energy shortfall likely to black out the country and much of southern Africa this year, according to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA).

The state-owned power utility says in a confidential document leaked to ZimOnline that several projects, some requiring several hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign scarce currency and meant to increase power output were either lagging behind or had failed to kick off altogether because of hard cash constraints. The Southern African Power Pool that co-ordinates power production and trade in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) forecasts regional annual total to reach 44 689 megawatts by the end of 2007 against combined net generation capacity of 45 000MW.The energy shortfall is expected to force countries such as South Africa and Mozambique that have provided about 40 per cent of Zimbabwe’s power requirements to scale down on exports in order to meet rising demand from their own domestic markets.The ZESA document dated November 15, 2006 shows that while agreement had been reached for CATIC of China to provide US$600 million for the expansion of generation capacity at Zimbabwe’s biggest thermal power station Hwange, the project was yet to kick off.ZimOnlineThe Southern African Power Pool that co-ordinates power production and trade in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) forecasts regional annual total to reach 44 689 megawatts by the end of 2007 against combined net generation capacity of 45 000MW.The energy shortfall is expected to force countries such as South Africa and Mozambique that have provided about 40 per cent of Zimbabwe’s power requirements to scale down on exports in order to meet rising demand from their own domestic markets.The ZESA document dated November 15, 2006 shows that while agreement had been reached for CATIC of China to provide US$600 million for the expansion of generation capacity at Zimbabwe’s biggest thermal power station Hwange, the project was yet to kick off.ZimOnline