Maravi

(HERALD) Mozambique restores power to Zim

Mozambique restores power to Zim
By Martin Kadzere

MOZAMBIQUE has restored power supply to Zimbabwe following the completion of maintenance at its giant Cahora Basa power station. Zesa chief executive Engineer Ben Rafemoyo said yesterday Zesa, the national power utility, was getting supply of 200 megawatts from Mozambique. This supply line was discontinued early last month to pave way for routine maintenance at HCB.

"They have since restored supply when they completed maintenance of their station . . . we are getting 200 megawatts," said Eng Rafemoyo.

However, the northern re-connector that links Zimbabwe and Zambia has remained closed and this has delayed power imports from the DRC. Zesa has a firm contract to import 100MW from the central African country.

The re-connector was disconnected after a system disturbance occurred on the regional grid system that links most countries in the southern Africa early this year.

It is not possible for Zimbabwe to access power from DRC, as it has to be routed through the Zambian grid.

The re-connectors were switched off to allow regional utilities, particularly Zesa, Eskom of South Africa and Kariba North Station in Zambia to easily trace faults that were causing disturbances on the grid.

Meanwhile, Namibia Power Corp has doubled the amount of power it imports from Zimbabwe’s Hwange coal-fired plant to 80 megawatts since January, the New Era newspaper of Namibia reported at the weekend.

Namibia Power agreed to help Zimbabwe with US$50 million to refurbish its units. Repairs to Hwange’s four units are expected to be complete by October.

Namibia will then boost imports to 150 megawatts for a period of five years.

Labels: ENERGY, MOZAMBIQUE, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 2:58 AM