The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Correspondent
ZESA Holdings has assured customers that normal supply of electricity is expected to resume today as unit 2 and 5 are in the process of being fixed to restore power supply to the national grid.
This comes after unit 1 boiler caught fire yesterday leading to a three- hour load shedding in some areas.
The fire which started around 5 pm broke out in the unit one boiler and lasted for about an hour. There were no casualties recorded.
In a statement, ZESA Board Chairman Dr Sydney Gata confirmed the incident saying the fire resulted from a leak in the diesel supply line.
“ZESA Holdings wishes to advise its valued stakeholders that one of the units at Hwange Power Station caught fire around 1700hrs this evening (yesterday). The fire broke out in the Unit 1 boiler as a result of a leak in the diesel supply line and lasted for about 40 minutes. There were no casualties arising from the fire,” reads the statement.
While the accident necessitated a three hour load shedding, ZESA holdings said normal supply is expected to resume today.
“Although we lost 140MW leading to load shedding between 1730hrs and 2030hrs due to suspension of load on units 2 and 5, we are in the process of firing the two units to restore power supply to the national grid. Normal supply is expected to resume on Thursday the 11th of February 2021.”
Hwange Power Station, the largest thermal power producer with an installed capacity of 920MW was only producing 293MW, according to the power generation update released on Monday by the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC).
According to the energy supply report, Hwange Power Station contributed 35 percent of the total energy production in the last quarter, while Kariba Power Station contributed 63 percent, with six percent of the energy being exported to Namibian power utility. – @nyeve14
