The Sunday News
Sunday News Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has announced that it will tomorrow begin the process of synchronising the Hwange Expansion Project’s Unit 7 into the national grid.
In a message on social media yesterday, ZPC indicated that the country’s electricity supply is set to improve when an additional 300 megawatts of power are obtained from the refurbished Hwange Unit 7.
Furthermore, Unit 8 is expected to come on grid next month, which will give the country a further 300 megawatts of power.
The power company’s spokesperson, Dr George Manyaya, last week told our sister paper, The Herald that the company was satisfied with test results from Hwange Thermal Power Station’s new Units 7 and 8 since December. He said there had been a lot of technical work going on to ensure that the company commissions a robust system.
The combined 600 megawatts from the two new units will alleviate power problems in the country and will allow maintenance work to start on the rundown six old units which have capacity to produce 920MW. Inflows into Lake Kariba and the arrival of the Zambezi flood season will also see Kariba South Hydro Power station stepping up generation, further improving power supplies, Dr Manyaya said.
“Commissioning is a delicate procedure and has to be done diligently. We are pleased that we have conformed to the standards. Furthermore, we are also satisfied that based on test results that have been taking place since December 2022, the Hwange 7 and 8 units have been well-designed and built to world standards. It has been prudent to carefully undertake all the commissioning tests that typically take six weeks in terms of engineering practice.”
Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda, last week told the National Assembly that Unit 7 will be the first one to go online before the end of the month followed by Unit 8 next month.
