Page 4 - AfrElec Week 31 2022

AfrElec POLICY AfrElec

Zimbabwe’s president visits

Mozambique, Zambia to rescue

power import contracts

ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE’S President Emmerson Mnan- There is more potential in more coal-fired
gagwa is due this week to visit Mozambique and energy as well as 3,600MW from hydro, bio-
Zambia to secure electricity import contracts mass, wind and solar capacity.
threatened by South Africa’s aggressive push for However, frequent plant breakdowns and
more power to cover a large shortfall. rising demand result in a nationwide electricity
Writing in his weekly column in state-owned shortage, likely to worsen by 2025 when several
The Sunday Mail on July 31, Mnangagwa urged mines expect their applications for connections
Zimbabweans not to panic over a power short- totalling 2,100MW to have been acted upon.
age that emerged in 2007, like elsewhere in The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and
southern Africa but has intensified in recent Distribution Company said recently that it will
months leading to prolonged blackouts. import 250MW from Mozambique and Zam-
“This week I am paying a working visit to the bia but South Africa is seeking supply from the
sister republic of Mozambique,” he wrote. “In same countries.
the coming weeks, I am likely to meet Presi- On July 25, President Cyril Ramaphosa
dent [Hakainde] Hichilema of Zambia in Liv- of South Africa announced a plan to ease an
ingstone. Both sister countries supply us with energy crisis in his own country. The strategy
power. I will engage my colleagues with a view includes boosting local generating capacity, pro-
to ensuring our power imports are secure and curing excess generation from domestic inde-
uninterrupted.” pendent power producers as well as importing
Zimbabwe has an installed capacity of from Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana.
2,000MW with 600MW more expected between Addressing a press conference on August
November 2022 and March 2023 when two 1, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gord-
units being built at the coal-burning Hwange han said the country plans to import between
plant are commissioned. National demand is 100MW to 200MW from Botswana and Zambia
about 1,500MW, which means that by the end of while a further 150MW of gas-fired electricity
Q1 2023 the country will, if all goes as planned, could be secured from Mozambique™
have a theoretical surplus of 1,100MW, Mnan-
gagwa said.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 04•August•2022