Page 12 - AfrElec Week 23 2022
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Zimbabwe halts refurbishment of
coal-fired power plants
ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE’S plan to refurbish two idled coal- the Asian nation’s biggest lender, last year
fired power stations has reportedly been scuttled dropped a plan to fund a $3bn coal mine and
by China’s decision to halt investment in plants power-plant complex in Zimbabwe, which
burning the dirtiest fossil fuel outside its borders. was being developed by RioEnergy, a unit of
The southern African country, Bloomberg RioZim at Sengwa in central Zimbabwe. China
reported on June 8, had been looking to China Gezhouba Group Corporation was to build the
to help get the Bulawayo Power Station, which 2,000MW facility on a deposit that has about
has a design capacity of 90MW, and the Mun- 1.3bn tonnes of proven reserves of coal.
yati Power Station, meant to generate 100MW, However, construction of two units of
to produce electricity to fill a chronic shortfall. 300MW each at Hwange Thermal Power Station,
However, China’s decision in September 2021 which started in August 2018 through a Chinese
not to fund more coal plants globally has frus- loan, is continuing. The Bulawayo and Munyati
trated the plan. plants were built between 1946 and 1957.
“There is no funding for coal plants. We Zimbabwe has an installed capacity to pro-
don’t have a plan yet,” Sydney Gata, executive duce 2,100MW but only generates on average
chairman of state-owned ZESA Holdings, told 1,200MW to 1,300MW. When possible, it meets
the news agency, adding that while he has been the shortfall through imports from neighbour-
communicating with the potential investors the ing South Africa and Mozambique.
final decision is made at a national level.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China,
Zimbabwe utility, platinum miners
strike deal on power supply
ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE’S power utility and local platinum Mozambique. However, lack of foreign currency
miners have reached an agreement under which has often resulted in it failing to pay the suppliers,
the former guarantees electricity supply to the which, in turn, switched the country off.
latter on the condition that they settle their off- “The PGMs producers have also managed to
shore hard currency obligations. secure special arrangements with Zesa wherein
Independent Online, a South African publi- they prepay ZESA offshore creditors in lieu of
cation cited an industry source on June 9 saying: guaranteed and uninterrupted power supply,”
“We have had to push for this deal for a sustain- Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe chief executive
able solution to power outages that have been officer Isaac Kwesu, said, quoted by state-owned
affecting production, with the risk that produc- daily The Herald on June 7. “This has further sta-
tion was going to be affected.” bilised power supply to the platinum producers
There are three platinum group metals and minimised production stoppages and out-
(PGMs) producers in the southern African put losses.”
country – Unki, which is owned by Anglo Amer- Kwesu added that the PGMs producers hope
ican, Zimplats wholly owned by South Africa’s that ZESA will continue with the facility for their
Implats, and Mimosa, whose owners are Sib- operations to run smoothly. On output since Jan-
anye-Stillwater as well as Implats. uary, he told the paper: “All the current opera-
Due to limited local output and grow- tors have managed to mobilise capital for both
ing demand, the Zimbabwe Electricity Sup- operations and expansion projects from their
ply Authority (ZESA) complements local parent offshore shareholders who continue to
output with imports from South Africa and adequately fund their requirements.”
P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 09•June•2022
