Zimbabwe risks power crisis long haul- Parly committee
THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy and Power Development has warned that Zimbabwe risks enduring prolonged power shortages if immediate strategies are not implemented to boost electricity generation.
In its latest report, released on Tuesday, the committee painted a bleak picture of the country’s energy production, indicating that the ongoing power crisis poses a major obstacle to economic growth.
Notable, the committee observed that Zimbabwe’s electricity supply strategy has been overly reliant on the Kariba South Power Station upgrade, a short-term solution vulnerable to water constraints.
This approach, it said has failed to address the country’s persistent electricity woes.
Low water levels at the Kariba Dam due an El Niño-induced drought and continuous breakdowns at the Hwange Thermal Power Station have worsened power shortages in the country.
The country is currently generating about 1 200 MW of electricity, mostly from the coal-fired Hwange plant, against peak demand of nearly 2 000 MW.
Added to that, global funding trends favouring renewable energy projects have limited Zimbabwe’s options for a balanced energy mix.
“The committee observed the need for baseload power sources like thermal and nuclear plants to ensure stable electricity supply, while acknowledging the role of renewables in peak power generation,” reads part of the report.
Zimbabwe has abundant renewable energy sources including solar, wind, geothermal and hydro.
The committee also said the country’s history of poor loan servicing has hindered access to affordable financing for power projects.
“The committee noted that the Hwange and Kariba projects were procured at inflated costs contributing to high electricity tariffs.
“The committee cited that considering the state we are in as a country, if there are no strategies that are going to be implemented sooner to boost generation, the nation will be suffering for a long haul.”
Zimbabwe is pacing up its electricity generation capacity to keep up with increasing demand in the wake of increased economic activity which the Second Republic is ushering to ensure power shortages do not constrict growth.
Power demand is increasing in tandem with economic growth thereby putting pressure on the country to speed up development of domestic power generation.
A major thermal energy investment at Hwange Power Station’s Units 7 and 8, financed through US$1.5 billion in financial assistance from China was commissioned.
Government is also encouraging Independent Power Producers to complement its efforts to boost power generation and stop relying on imports.
According to the committee report, IPPs are playing a crucial role in the energy sector as most of them use various energy sources such as solar helping in diversifying the energy mix.
IPPs are contributing about 69 MW to the national grid.
It said challenges hindering the efficient generation, transmission and distribution range from climate changes or variability, aging infrastructure theft and vandalism and high foreign currency obligations for loan repayments.
According to ZESA Holdings, the committee said the utility firm possess huge loan burden in renovating some of the units such as Kariba South Power Station (KSPS), which amounts to US$350 million.
“ZESA created a huge debt burden on the utility, including foreign currency commitments for loan repayments and spare parts purchase.
“Management added that repayments need to be done in foreign currency and they have resorted to exporting power in order to generate foreign currency,” reads the report in part.
The energy committee noted that in as much as the transmission and distribution lines are functioning well, ZESA management indicated during their mission that the country is still facing serious power outages because the distribution supply of electricity is not meeting the nations demand.
The major challenge is of all power plants not producing their optimum capacity, it said.
“In addition, ZPC pointed out that KSPS is producing 250MW only, Hwange power station is producing 750MW and IPPs are adding 69MW making a total of 1079MW, which cannot sustain the whole nation yet the nation’s demand is from 1500MW to 2350MW.
“Furthermore, ZPC has resorted to importing power from the neighbouring countries like Namibia in order to reduce load shedding.”
Based on the committee recommendation, ZESA Holdings should be actively involved in attracting significant investments in refurbishing existing power plants and constructing new ones to overcome the overreliance on Kariba South and address the observed infrastructure deficiencies by 31 December, 2025.
It said the Ministry of Energy and Power Development should diversify the energy mix to mitigate the impact of water constraints on hydroelectric power and enhance overall system reliability by 31 December 2026.
“In this regard, the committee recommends for a strategic balance between base load power sources such as thermal and nuclear and renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal.”
It urged the Energy ministry to invest in renewable energy projects in order to complement private sector efforts and address the funding constraints observed by 31 December 2025.
On the part of Treasury, it said it should timely disburse funds to service loans for power projects to ease Zimbabwe’s history of debt servicing challenges and improve the country’s creditworthiness and facilitate access to affordable energy financing.
To supplement current energy supplies, in late 2024, ZESA partnered with Titan Energy from China to construct a 720 MW coal thermal power plant in Hwange.
The partnership will see Titan injecting a US$1 billion investment.
In addition, Titan will set up a 200 MW solar plant in Gweru Phase 2.
The objectives of the enquiry were to establish the current capacity of power generation within the country, assess the overall state of electricity supply and distribution nationwide, identify and analyse the challenges hindering the efficient generation, transmission and distribution of electricity and propose appropriate recommendations.-ebsinessweekl
