Page 4 - AfrElec Week 18 2022

AfrElec POICY AfrElec

Zimbabwe president assures

energy security

SOUTH AFIRCA ZIMBABWE President Emmerson Mnangagwa caused by old, poorly functioning facilities,
has said there is no need for panic over energy droughts which hamper hydro output at Kariba,
security in his country as investments are pro- little investment in new capacity and foreign cur-
ceeding in line with demand. rency shortage to import electricity from neigh-
In his weekly column in The Sunday Mail on bouring countries.
May 1, Mnangagwa said if demand exceeds local According to the National Renewable Energy
generation capacity, his government can readily Policy, Zimbabwe plans to increase the contribu-
import power. tion of renewables to 27% by 2030 up from about
Investment in boosting the contribution of 6% in 2019.
renewables as well as coal-fired capacity is on There is a plan to build a $4.5bn, 2,400MW
course, he said, noting that in March, he had hydro plant across the Zambezi River. Zimba-
commissioned a solar power plant west of Zim- bwe and Zambia awarded General Electric of
babwe that is contributing 5MW to the grid. the US and China’s Power Construction Corpo-
Expansion of a coal-fired project by a Chi- ration a tender to construct the project on the
nese company at Hwange, also in the west of the river that forms Zimbabwe’s border with Zambia
country, should add 300MW into the grid by to the northwest.
year-end. Another 300MW from the same facil- Mnangagwa commissioned a 300MW hydro
ity is due online by March 2023, he said. plant at Kariba South in March 2018. That pro-
“Clearly our investments in energy match the ject took Kariba South’s installed capacity to
expanding economic activity we continue to wit- 1.000MW. However, on April 29, it was produc-
ness and envisage,” he wrote. “Besides, we have ing 722MW, according to the Zimbabwe Power
power imports options we can always bring to Company.
bear should demand for power exceed installed “By year-end, Hwange 7 will come on stream,
supply capacity. Fears around power deficit are adding some 300MW to our grid. Hwange 8
thus not a factor anymore.” is set to follow by March next year, to give us
The southern African country has, since another 300MW,” Mnangagwa wrote.™
2007, been experiencing an electricity shortage

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 18 05•May•2022