The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
CONSTRUCTION of houses for villagers in Matabeleland North who have been affected by the electricity expansion project under the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) is going on well with the overall progress at ninety percent.
The power utility adopted a Relocation Action Plan (RAP) and has reported that most of the houses are now at roof level.
ZPC, which is the power generation arm of Zesa Holdings, embarked on a relocation action plan to build new homesteads for families in Matabeleland North who were affected by the construction of the new 400kv transmission line under the Hwange 7 and 8 expansion projects.
In an update for the second quarter, ZPC says RAP is progressing well, with two of the nine construction sites having already been completed.
“The ZPC Relocation Action Plan (RAP) is progressing well with the overall progress of all construction sites at 90 percent with most of the houses at roof level. Two out of nine construction sites (Epping Forest and Sawmills) have been completed to date,” reads the statement.
In terms of the Hwange expansion project, the company said at the end of the second quarter it was at 89.95 percent.
ZPC said although the project schedule had been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, recovery efforts were now being implemented to complete the project in the shortest possible time.
The company said they had also has taken delivery of the first batch of 3 555 mild steel pipes for the crucial Deka Upgrade Project aimed at ensuring that Hwange Thermal Power Station gets huge quantities of pure water needed for its boilers and cooling systems.
“ZPC started receiving various components for the Deka project, which is funded from a USD $48.1 million Line of Credit (LOC) extended by the Government of India to the Government of Zimbabwe.
“The first batch of 3 555 mild steel pipes was received on the 10th of July 2022. The offloading and transportation process will take approximately a month to complete as the pipes are transported in batches of 30 trucks,” said ZPC.
In the second quarter, ZPC sent out 2300.31 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity thereby marginally surpassing the quarterly target which was set at 2292.31GWh by 0.35 percent.
ZPC said Kariba Power Station contributed 72 percent of the total energy production in the period under review, Hwange Power Station contributed 27 percent while the small thermals only contributed 1 percent to the total energy production during the quarter.
“All eight units at Kariba were available for peak generation during the quarter and due to increased generation, the station surpassed its quarterly target by 14.17 percent. The output for the quarter was 6.39 percent above the output in the second quarter 2021.”
ZPC said from January to date, it has sent out 4469.08GWh of power thereby surpassing the target for the period set at 4177.60GWh by 6.98 percent, while this represents 49 percent of the annual target set at 9111GWh.
The company said to alleviate coal supply challenges faced by thermal power stations, Cabinet approved for a long-term coal supply agreement which will see coal suppliers getting long term bank financing they need to expand on their production.
