By Online Desk | 9 months ago | local
Kariba South Hydro Power Station will no longer have to shut down even though it has
exhausted its water allocation for this year, but is limited to an average of 300 megawatts,
half what it was able to use before, until more water starts flowing into the lake.
Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda, giving the news for Kariba, said
yesterday that Zesa Holdings was also pushing output at its thermal power stations to a
total of 445MW, was seeking the independent power producers already on grid to maximise
output, was seeking to improve imports, and was in the process of testing the new 300MW
Unit 7 at Hwange Thermal with this expected to be feeding the grid later this month once all
tests and resulting adjustments are complete.
At the same time, consumers have been asked to conserve power, and businesses
commissioning solar power, or adding to solar power, have been urged to push ahead with
zero licensing required for any power source under 5MW to make this as easy as possible
and still allow the companies to sell surplus to Zesa Holdings.
The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), which manages the Kariba Dam and Lake Kariba and
works out how much water Zimbabwe and Zambia can use, had allocated each power station
22,5 billion cubic metres for this year.
By late last month Zesa’s generating subsidiary, the Zimbabwe Power Company, had used up
this ration implying that what was left in live storage in Lake Kariba, the water above the
inlets to the power stations, was reserved for Zesco of Zambia.
However, a new agreement has been hammered out by ZRA that allows Zimbabwe to
generate 300MW at Kariba South while Zambia can use more than double at Kariba North.
In his announcement Minister Soda said: “Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has indeed
exhausted its water allocation for the year. However, Kariba South Power Station will not
shut down completely. Rather it will continue to generate but at a reduced capacity of up to
300MW daily average pending a review of the water situation at the dam in January 2023.
“This means that the power station has the latitude to vary its capacity as long as it
maintains within the required average capacity. The reduction of capacity at Kariba Hydro
Power Station results in a loss of 300MW in capacity that the ministry is addressing,” he
said.
The Ministry of Energy has come up with measures, through Zesa Holdings and independent
power producers , to mitigate the power challenges. In addition, said Minister Soda, Zesa
was negotiating for additional imports from the current suppliers, with more power
expected to be secured through the Southern African Power Pool market.
“We are also increasing production from local power generation installations such as
Hwange Thermal Power Station and ZPC will ramp up production at the power station to
average 400MW. ZPC will also ramp up production at small thermals to produce a combined
total of 45MW,” said Minister Soda.
Support will be given to all independent power producers to enable them to produce at
maximum capacity, especially Zimbabwe ZhongXin Electrical Energy.
Minister Soda said other measures included the commissioning of new capacity such as Unit
7 at Hwange Power Station, which is undergoing technical processes for commissioning and
will start feeding power into the grid later this month. Once Unit 7 has been commercially
commissioned, Unit 8 will follow early next year and give Zimbabwe an additional 600MW.
Minister Soda urged consumers to reduce load by employing energy conservation and
efficiency measures such as switching off lights in all offices at night and using right size
equipment, and energy savers.
“Through SI 38 of 2022, net-metering regulations were amended to exempt from licensing a
capacity of up to 5MW. This incentive is expected to result in increased internal generation
as companies set up their own solar generation systems,” he said.
Solar projects including the Caledonia Mine/Blanket Mine will produce 12MW when
completed, while the Richo Solar project will generate 1,3MW and Guruve 1,2MW.
Said Minister Soda: “Over and above the measures, Government is pursuing a medium to
long term plan to meet the power needs of the end. Government has also identified some
solar sites where it will fasttrack implementation and pre-feasibility studies have already
been done.”
While high output at the Kariba stations relies on water stored during the annual floods, the
Zambezi never runs dry. Every day water flows over the Victoria Falls and this water soon
arives in the lake, although very little is added in the dry season from Matabeleland North,
Mashonaland West or Zambia’s Central Province. This daily inflow means that some power
can be generated without using the stored reserves, even in the low-water season now being
experienced.
In fact even if the storage was used up, the daily inflows would still have to be pushed
through the power stations to ensure that the river did not run dry between the dam wall
and the Kafue confluence.
Also yesterday Zambian Energy Minister Peter Kapala announced the same arrangement at
Kariba and while Zesco can generate more than Zesa at Kariba, it will need its other sources
at the two Kafue Dams, the lower reusing the water from the upper, and the little it gets
from small hydros and the Victoria Falls and what its own independents are now feeding
into that grid. Zambia will also be looking for imports. Zambia has no thermal.