Thursday, May 26, 2011

(HERALD) Load-shedding to continue — Zesa

Load-shedding to continue — Zesa
Saturday, 21 May 2011 22:45 Top Stories
Sunday Mail Reporter

POWER outages will continue countrywide as the power stations in Hwange and Kariba are not able to meet the demand for electricity, an official has said.

Zesa Holdings spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said power generation was so low at Hwange Thermal Power Station that it was failing to complement Kariba. This means that even though care and maintenance work was successfully carried out at Kariba Hydroelectric Power Station, the electricity situation would remain dire.

Mr Gwasira said the situation was worsened by the fact that the power utility was prioritising wheat farmers, who were consuming a lot of power.
“We are unable to import power from the region as there is very little in terms of power in the Sadc region,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Mr Justin Mupamhanga, said the Government had no alternative to load-shedding.
He said they would continue to rehabilitate power stations to maintain generation capacity.

“Apart from the rehabilitation and processes of expansion of the power stations, the truth about the situation is that there is no excess power,” said Mr Mupamhanga.
“We cannot import power from the region and remember, we are many in the region and the demand is high.”

Despite the power outages Zesa has come under fire from consumers over “inflated bills”.

But Mr Gwasira said they were no longer experiencing challenges with bills.

“What appears on the bill is what one would have consumed. There are some customers who think their bills are not correct, but they are correct. If anyone has a problem with the bills they should approach our offices,” he said.

Meanwhile, Harare Residents’ Trust Co-ordinator Mr Precious Shumba said there was widespread concern among consumers over Zesa’s failure to communicate with them pertaining to the load-shedding schedules.

“As the Harare Residents’ Trust, we have received serious concerns from residents as Zesa is failing to communicate with the people on load-shedding schedules,” he said.-The Sunday MAil

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Monday, September 13, 2010

(HERALD) Power cuts till December

Power cuts till December
Herald Reporter

Major power cuts are expected across Zimba-bwe until December following the reduction of generation at Kariba Power Station for the annual maintenance exercise that began last Friday. Kariba will be churning out 650 megawatts, down from 750 MW.

Zesa spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira yesterday said the maintenance work was supposed to be done earlier this year but was deferred due to poor performance at Hwange Power Station that made it impossible to reduce Kariba’s output.

He said the power utility was looking at the possibility of imports from regional suppliers to cover its customers.

The imports will augment supplies from Hwa-nge and Munyati thermal power stations.

"Kariba undergoes statutory maintenance every year and this was supposed to be done in April but was deferred as a result of poor performance at Hwange.

"The work has now resumed because generation of power at Hwange has improved and we have recently fired Munyati Power Station, which is generating 40 megawatts.

"The maintenance work is expected to run up until before Christmas. Our internal supply will be depressed during the period and, obviously, load-shedding will increase outside the normal schedule," he said.

Mr Gwasira said two generators, with a generating capacity of more than 200MW, will be switched on at regular intervals during servicing to allow continued electricity supplies to the nation.

Mr Gwasira said Kariba had three generators that supplied two transformers that feed into the national grid.

He said electricity consumers would be advised as and when the power utility would switch off the transformers to avoid inconveniences.

Meanwhile, Zesa Holdings has failed to comply with the Competition and Tariff Commission’s order to use proper meter readings instead of estimates when billing its customers.

A survey by The Herald showed that most Zesa customers last month received estimated bills.

Mr Gwasira yesterday refused to comment on the issue, saying it was a process that could not be accomplished overnight.

The parastatal’s customers have often complained that the estimated bills were far above their consumption.

Many consumers have not regularly paid their electricity bills since the formalisation of foreign currency transactions in February last year.

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posted by MrK @ 11:39 PM 0 Comments