Maravi

(HERALD) Blackout hits Zim

Blackout hits Zim
Herald Reporter

A SYSTEMS disturbance occurred on the electricity grid linking most of Southern Africa to a common grid, plunging most parts of Zimbabwe into darkness from Saturday night. Power was only restored yesterday afternoon in some areas. The blackout also affected Botswana and Zambia. A systems disturbance occurs when there is a variation of power frequency on an electricity grid.

According to a preliminary report from Zesa Holdings, the power outage emanated from Zambia and spread south, affecting Zimbabwe and Botswana.

In an interview at the weekend, Zesa Holdings chief executive officer Engineer Ben Rafemoyo said there was a systems disturbance affecting Kariba North in Zambia and this spread south affecting Zimbabwe and Pokoje Power Station in Botswana.

The power utility’s boss said engineers were working tirelessly at Kariba and Hwange Thermal Power stations to ensure that power was restored as soon as possible.

"We are starting off with critical loads or areas such as the central business district, hospitals, water pumping stations, Harare Interna-tional Airport and the broadcasting stations. The few isolated cases are being attended to. At Hwange they are firing the first unit and this will boost electricity supplies," he said.

However, by the end of the day yesterday, all the six generators at Kariba Power Station were back at full throttle and most parts of Zimbabwe were back on the grid. The blackout affected water supplies, traffic lights and essential services such as hospitals and airports.

The printing of yesterday’s edition of The Sunday Mail was also affected as it only hit the streets after midday. Residents of Avondale, Hatfield, Greendale, Highlands, Highfield, Kuwadzana and several other suburbs including the central business district were without water up to yesterday evening.

Zinwa acting distribution manager for Harare, Engineer Richard Kunyadini said the power outage had affected the pumping of water at Morton Jaffray waterworks and Warren Control but power had since been restored and they were expecting the situation to improve.

By midday yesterday, power had been restored in most parts of the country.

Eng Rafemoyo said the power outage had nothing to do with the country failing to pay for its electricity imports.

He said the full report on what actually transpired would be issued once they had gathered all the facts and yesterday they were still liaising with their Zambian counterparts, Zesco.

"The full report would be issued once the facts are at hand and as more details come, this will be passed on to the public," he said.

The Zesa Holdings boss dismissed as false, media reports suggesting that Zimbabwe was still importing electricity from South Africa’s Eskom.

"We last got supplies from Eskom in June last year and that was for the simple reason that they were unable to supply Zimbabwe because of their own challenges," he said.

"We don’t owe them (Eskom) anything and there is nothing like overdue payments. We are only accessing power from Mozambique and the DRC," he said.

Eng Rafemoyo said Eskom was load-shedding over 2 000 megawatts and was thus not in a position to supply Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe requires 1 500 mega-watts of electricity daily.

Labels: ENERGY, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 9:07 PM