Power plant to be commissioned before year-end
The Zimbabwe ZhongXing Electrical Energy (ZZEE) is set to commission its 50MW thermal power plant in Hwange, Matabeleland North Province before year-end, a Ministry of Mines official has said.
ZZEE is a subsidiary of the Zimbabwe ZhongZin Coking Company, a joint venture company between Qualisave Mineral Resources of Zimbabwe and Yuxia ZhongXin Coking Company of China.
“Phase one which will feed 50MW to the national grid is 97% complete and it is going to be commissioned before the end of the year by President Emmerson Mnangagwa,” said the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development’s inspector of mines and explosives for Matebeleland North, Tapiwa Makuvatsine.
“The phase two we are going to have two by 135MW of power generation and this is going to add 270 megawatts in the total national grid,” Makuvatsine said.
“We have players that are coming to play a pivotal role to support power generation in order to achieve the 2000 MW by 2023 in order to enhance and support the US$12bn mining sector that we want to achieve.”
He said the power generated will be supplied to the national grid.
Zimbabwe requires about 1800MW daily at peak hours.
But, is currently producing an average of 1400 MW from power stations at Kariba, Hwange, Bulawayo, Munyati and Harare.
To cover for the shortages, the power utility ZESA imports from regional power utilities especially Eskom of South Africa and Hydro Cahora Bassa of Mozambique.