Zimbabwe targets 10,00MW power grid
15/09/2012 00:00:00
by Mining Weekly
ZIMBABWE is continuing to invest in new power generation capacity to close
its supply gap, officials from the energy regulatory authority and national
power supplier told delegates at the yearly Mining Indaba in Harare on
Thursday.
Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) chairperson Canada Malunga said
the government had launched its National Energy Policy (NEP) last week,
outlining the strategies and measures for increasing electricity capacity.
Zimbabwe has set a target of 10 000 MW of installed capacity by 2040 to
support a vision of growing the economy to $100-billion.
The NEP called for a capacity expansion of 800 MW at the Batoka Gorge
hydropower power station by 2020, 300 MW at the Kariba South hydroelectric
power station by 2016, as well as other smaller hydropower plants.
Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) MD Noah Gwariro said the national electricity
supplier’s immediate goals were to invest $900-million in existing plants to
increase dependable capacity, as stipulated by the NEP. ZPC would extend the
Hwange power station’s capacity by 600 MW.
The ZPC would also invest $2-billion in new generation projects, including
the construction of a 30 MW Gairezi hydropower plant, the development of the
Lupane gasfields for a 350 MW plant and a $500-million transmission
integration project.
Gwariro said the development projects were at an advanced stage and would
add 900 MW to Zimbabwe’s power mix by 2016.
Hwange and Kariba South were currently between 80% and 90% complete, with
Lupane standing at about 10%.
Meanwhile, Malunga said the NEP also outlined the role of independent power
producers (IPPs), public-private partnerships and joint ventures in the
expansion of electricity capacity.
The NEP further acknowledged the role of renewable-energy technologies and
Malunga said Zera was working on an IPP policy framework to be considered by
government and assisting in the development of a renewable energy policy
framework and drafting the feed-in tariff framework for renewable energy
technologies.
The regulator has licensed various large electricity generation projects,
investing in 11 new projects with a combined capacity of 5 400 MW and value
of $10.1-billion.
Malunga pointed out that all the new projects were looking at trading in the
Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). “Zera works closely with SAPP in
coordination of regional power generation projects for optimisation of
available resources in the region,” he noted.
Malunga said that sufficient power supply was important to ensuring growth
in Zimbabwe’s mining sector, which had been identified by the country’s
Medium Term Plan as one of the main pillars in its recovery process. “Mining
operations are energy intensive and consume 14% of electricity in Zimbabwe.”