Ivan Zhakata–Herald Correspondent

A technical fault at Hwange Power Station has cut power supplies, hence the heavy load-shedding, with Zambia and South Africa also facing load-shedding and so unable to export.

In a statement yesterday, Zesa Holdings said work was in progress at Hwange to fix the fault.

“The technical fault has resulted in depressed generation of electricity at Hwange Power Station. Restoration of service is underway and customers are advised to use the available power sparingly.”

Zambia is facing its own serious fault.

A spokeperson for Zambian power utility ZESCO, Ms Hazel Zulu, said the country’s power utility had experienced a disturbance following the loss of significant generation in the Zambian system, which resulted in the separation of the entire Zambian power system from the rest of the Southern African interconnected power system.

This caused a nationwide blackout. Preliminary investigations indicate that the cause of the disturbance was external to the Zambian interconnected power system, she said.

ZESCO immediately began power restoration, which is still ongoing, with power restored in parts of Lusaka, southern, western and central provinces.

ZESCO will continue to keep customers and the public informed on this matter. The inconvenience this has caused is deeply regretted.

Meanwhile, South African’s Eskom has said that their stage 4 load-shedding was being implemented from 1pm on Monday until 5am on Friday, thereafter Stage 2 load-shedding will be implemented as previously communicated until 5am on Saturday.

While Eskom regrets the escalation in load-shedding, it said it was necessary to ration the remaining emergency generation reserves, which have been utilised extensively as they are not getting the reduction in demand as expected from the implementation of Stage 2 load-shedding.

It was anticipated that an additional seven units would have returned to service by Monday, and this has not materialised.