Herald Reporter
Residential areas are likely to continue receiving uninterrupted power during the extended lockdown period despite the recent partial re-opening of industries, a senior Government official has said.

President Mnangagwa on May 1, extended the national lockdown by two more weeks and downgraded it to Level Two, where industries that usually consume much electricity were permitted to operate between 8am to 3pm.

Most suburbs across the country have been experiencing constant electricity supplies since the beginning of the Covid-19-induced national lockdown, when industries were shut.

The Herald established that since the industries were re-opened on Monday, most residential areas still continued to have steady electricity supplies.

In an interview on Wednesday, Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister Magna Mudyiwa assured people that supplies to residential areas will continue uninterrupted until industry returned to full throttle.

“The availability of excess supply in the region, the potential to increase power from Kariba and the return of other units from Hwange will determine the ability of electricity to meet the increase in demand,” she said.

The steady supply comes after Zesa Holdings recently approved an automatic hike of 19,02 percent for all tariffs calculated from a formula that ensures continuation of imports and operation of its stations.

Deputy Minister Mudyiwa said even post-Covid-19, the situation may still remain steady, depending on the suppliers.

Zesa relies largely on thermal power from Hwange and imports from South Africa and Mozambique as Kariba South has been generating well below capacity because of low water flows into Lake Kariba.

In Zesa’s energy mix, Kariba South power is normally the cheapest.

Power from Hwange is more expensive because it requires coal, while importing power requires foreign currency.