Page 10 - AfrElec Week 41 2022
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AfrElec COAL GENERATION AfrElec
India lends $310mn to Zimbabwe
to rehabilite coal plants
ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE plans to rehabilitate its six main commissioned between 1983 and 1987. They,
coal-fired power generating plants after having however, have become less efficient and were
secured a $310mn loan from the Export-Import producing 380MW out of the 1,114MW that the
Bank of India, according to state-owned daily Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) was generat-
The Herald. ing by 1pm on Thursday (October 13), according
Zhemu Soda, the energy and power develop- to figures on its website.
ment minister, is quoted as saying that the pro- Due to the low output, the southern African
ject at Hwange seeks to restore the facilities to nation has, in recent years, been forced to strictly
their total nameplate capacity of 920MW. ration power and import from its neighbours to
Work, according to the daily, is planned to try and meet an average demand of 1,700MW.
begin after the commissioning of two new plants Local mining and smelting companies have said
of 300MW each by March 2023. Both are being they will need a cumulative 2,100MW by 2025.
constructed through a $1.5bn loan from China. ZPC has engaged a consultant who is
“We are likely to have two units decommis- expected to have finished working on the scope
sioned at a time (to pave way for rehabilitation) of the work for the rehabilitation project by end
until all the units have been repaired,” Soda of November 2022, Soda told The Herald.
told The Herald. “We are looking at restoring “The report will pave way for the disburse-
the capacity of all the units to 920MW upon ments of the funds by the Exim Bank of India,”
completion.” he said.
The six plants set for rehabilitation were
P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 13•October•2022
