By John Ikani
Zimbabwe’s Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda says the country faces prolonged power outages after a surge in electricity imports from neighbouring South Africa overloaded the network and caused generating plants to fail.
The minister who made the disclosure while speaking to newsmen said the surge caused a nationwide blackout in the early hours of Monday, as it affected output at the Kariba hydropower plant and the coal-fired Hwange Power Station.
Generation has since been restored at Kariba and it’s the only one of the nation’s five plants that is working, while engineers are trying to restore output at the Hwange units, said Soda.
He further noted that “Demand is outweighing internal power-generation capacity.”
What you should know
Zimbabwe doesn’t produce enough of its own power and relies on imports from neighbouring South Africa and Mozambique to meet demand.
According to the Zimbabwe Power Company website, Kariba produces 1 014 megawatts of electricity, compared with national consumption of about 2 000 megawatts.
