-
Zimbabwe must rely on its South African Development Community (SADC) neighbors who have excess power to make up for the country’s power shortage.
-
A combination of bad management and climate change is to blame for this gap.
-
While attempts are being made to switch certain families to solar energy and remove them from the nation’s grid, the country will continue to rely on coal as a source of energy.
Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, warns that due to a chronic lack of electricity, his nation will have to rely on its SADC neighbors for electricity.
In his weekly editorial for the state-run Sunday Mail, Mnangagwa explained that the proposal to “engage sister countries in our SADC region with excess power to sell to us” was a temporary solution to the country’s potential electricity shortage between now and April 2023.
However, sufficient resources must be mobilized in order to implement this measure.
“They will be mobilised,” vowed Mnangagwa. He added that “the cost of importing power is relatively less than a slowdown in industry, whose capacity utilisation has been rising steadily”.
Infrastructural problems
Some have blamed Zimbabwe’s power generation sector’s bad state on inadequate management, a lack of investment in renewable energy sources, and the Hwange Thermal Power Station.
BREAK DOWNS. Stockpiles of coal and a lack of available plants can occasionally restrict the amount of energy produced.
The six generators in Hwange “are nearing the end of their lifespan and, therefore, require refurbishment or replacement,” Mnangagwa said in his column.
The Export-Import Bank of India has since agreed to provide the $310 million (R5.3 billion) required for the generators’ refurbishment.
A new 300 MW plant is planned to be connected to the grid by the end of the year, but it won’t be enough to meet the 1 725 MW demand that is already in place. This is simply a cautious estimate, though, as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) reports that it has received applications for 2,350MW in new connections, with the mining industry accounting for 80% of those requests.
ZESA, according to acting managing director Howard Choga, has a $2 billion (R34 billion) infrastructure gap in addition to its meager electricity production.
CLIMATE CHANGE.
Climate change has contributed to the nation’s power shortage in part because the Kariba Power Station’s ability to generate electricity has been severely hampered by the Kariba Dam’s rapidly dropping water levels.
The Zambezi River Authority imposed a restriction on Kariba Dam’s generating earlier this year because of this water scarcity. However, the dam’s generation has recently resumed, however with a cap of just 300 MW out of a possible 1 050 MW. Kariba’s contribution to the nation’s grid on Monday only amounted to 200MW.
Coal
Mnangagwa believes there is no need to abandon coal as a source of energy in the long run.
Leading economies breaking their promises to cease the use of thermal power, he said, is a reminder that “we cannot be sentimental about coal while our industries die from power shortages.”
“We have abundant coal; it must be harnessed to meet our energy needs.”
“We have to revisit our whole licensing regime to speed up entry into the sector by new players and to encourage more independent power producers, especially in the critical area of renewables. The licensing regime must respond to viability concerns of such investors, whose support our economy now so desperately needs.”
Mnangagwa revealed that there is also a plan to target households with the capacity to run on solar, “so we remove them from the national grid”.
“In government, we are already incorporating solar [power] systems in packages that public servants enjoy. Such employer-assisted interventions, across the sectors, will see us speedily migrating more households to solar,” he said.