Page 8 - AfrElec Week 43 2022

AfrElec POLICY AfrElec

Zimbabwe forecasts electricity

demand quadrupling to

7,000MW by 2035

ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE’S electricity demand is projected has often forced the utility to cut on the imported
to rise to 7,000MW by 2035 from around feed, necessitating rationing.
1,750MW now, driven by growth in the min- As at 3pm on Tuesday (October 25), the Zim-
ing industry, state-owned daily the Chronicle babwe Power Company, a Zesa Holdings subsid-
reports. iary, was producing 1,108MW, according to data
“Demand is growing especially from new on its website.
mining projects. It is forecast that we need 6,000 Meanwhile, the government is expanding
to 7,000 megawatts by 2035,” Tanda Chisi, a con- the Hwange coal-fired facility, through a $1.5bn
sultant for power projects development at power Chinese loan, to add 600MW by March 2023.
utility Zesa Holdings, is quoted as saying. The project is 94.6% complete, Chisi said.
“So, all plans we are having are on the “On design, engineering together with
assumption that we would be producing those procurement of materials we are at 99.5% and
volumes by 2035 and we forge ahead with the construction is at 87.4%,” he said. “So, we are
national vision of being an upper middle-in- confident that by end of November, commis-
come by 2030.” sioning of Unit 7 [to add 300MW] will be done
The southern African country generates and Unit 8 [300MW] in March next year.”
between 1,100MW and 1,300MW and must Send Flash Out: ™
import an average 400MW to meet demand.
However, a prolonged foreign currency shortage

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 26•October•2022