Govt acquires funds for Byo Power Station refurbishment

 

Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE refurbishment of the Bulawayo Thermal Power Station at a cost of $87 million will begin in two months’ time as the Government has received funding for the project.

This was said by Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister Tsitsi Muzenda last week.

“The $87 million is there already from the Government. It is our hope as a ministry that work will start in two months’ time at the station,” said Deputy Minister Muzenda.

The refurbishment will see an additional 90 megawatts (MW) being channelled into the national grid and is expected to be completed in 2018 as the country forges ahead with efforts to reduce power deficit.

Bulawayo United Residents Association chairman Mr Winos Dube is on record saying the additional power output from the station is a welcome development which will improve availability of power.

The proposed project will involve replacing existing chain grate boilers with CFBC boilers and the refurbishment of turbo-alternators and Balance of Plant (BOP).

The entire plant is estimated to require approximately 11 million litres of raw water per day for power generation and it is proposed that this water be abstracted from Khami Dam.

A 20 kilometre long pipe line from Khami Dam is going to be constructed to the Bulawayo Power Station so that there is constant supply of water.

Apart from Bulawayo, the country has two other small thermal power stations in Harare and Munyati near Kwekwe.
Like other power stations, the Bulawayo station’s generating capacity has been constrained by aging equipment.

In 2013, Zimbabwe Power Company approached the Indian government to fund refurbishment of the thermal power station.

The thermal power station was commissioned in the 1950s as an undertaking by the Bulawayo Municipality. It was transferred to Zesa in 1987 after the amalgamation of all the local authority electricity undertakings, the Electricity Supply Commission, thermal power stations at Munyati and Hwange and the Central African Power Corporation station at Kariba.