Zim to shut down Hwange

ZIMBABWE is considering closing down the Hwange thermal power station because of constant breakdowns, three years after Namibia pumped US$40 million, nearly N$300 million, into the refurbishment of the plant.

Zimbabwean Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube yesterday told a group of business leaders in Harare that a team of cabinet ministers would compile a report on the state of equipment at Hwange and make recommendations whether to continue with generation, Reuters reported.This is the second setback for Namibian power projects in a week.Last Thursday, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) pulled the plug on the Inga 3 hydro-electric project. Yengo Massampu, Chief Executive of the DRC’s National Electricity Society (SNEL), announced that Westcor, the developing consortium consisting of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa and the DRC, would be dissolved.NamPower’s Marketing and Communications Manager John Kaimu told The Namibian yesterday that NamPower was not aware of any decommissioning plans at Hwange.In 2007, NamPower lend the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) US$40 million. In return, the two utilities signed a power purchase agreement (PPA), in terms of which Zesa delivers 150 megawatts of power to NamPower for five years.Like with the Inga announcement, Kaimu wasn’t alarmed.NamPower has an agreement with Zesa, he said, and not Hwange. Regardless of the situation at Hwange, NamPower has been getting power and will continue to get power, he said.In January, Zimbabwe’s Energy and Power Development Minister Elias Mudzuri caused an uproar saying that Zesa would in future only be allowed to export power to NamPower if it was generated at Hwange. He backtracked later, saying that Zesa would honour its deal with NamPower despite struggling to meet its own domestic demand. In recent weeks, Zimbabweans had to endure increased enforced power cuts to match supply with demand.Industry and Commerce Minister Ncube yesterday accused Zesa of lying about the problems at Hwange.Zeza’s Chief Executive Ben Rafemoyo told Reuters last week that two out of six units at Hwange were already back in operation and that a third was due to start production last week Wednesday.Ncube commented that Zesa was misrepresenting the 750-megawatt plant’s problems to government, saying that at one time they blamed coal shortages but now said the equipment at the power plant was too old to operate at full capacity.’Regrettably, over the last 12 months, the problems have always been communicated to us differently,’ he said.’The government has now had to say let us get a full report on all the six units … then we can say do we really need to spend more money on them (units) or decommission them,’ Ncube said.All the six units at Hwange can only operate at 40 per cent of their design capacity, Ncube said, giving a maximum output of 300 megawatt.’As of the end of last week, it (Hwange) was delivering 50 megawatt, which basically means that it’s not in play at the moment,’ Ncube said.- Additional reporting by Reutersjo-mare@namibian.com.na