The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is expecting electricity demand surge in the country beyond the current peak demand levels of 1950MW on the back of increased investment in the energy consuming mining sector.
Appearing before the parliamentary committee on Energy, the power entity intimated the new investment in mining are anticipated to drive the country’s demand for electricity beyond 3500MW.
The revelation means Zimbabwe is in dire need of investment in new power plants to sustain the expected surge but thus far, it has been a mammoth task. Few of the licensed independent power producers have materialised as financing remain a challenge stemming from the country risk associated with Zimbabwe which is rooted in the sanctions imposed on Harare by the West.
Even guarantees by Ministry of Finance and RBZ have failed to yield the anticipated results.ZESA on its own is also saddled by a 2 billion debt accumulated from loans for projects it has carried including Hwange Unit 7 and 8 and import costs owed to regional power supplies that have been assisting the power utility cover it’s short fall.
Of note is that majority of ZESA’ s monthly revenue is going towards debt servicing leaving the utility with little room to manouvre.In its evidence before the parliamentary committee, ZESA put their monthly revenue at $55 million a month, $36million of that amount is going to servicing of the $1 billion loan used to build Hwange units 7 and 8.
The county has been experiencing a crippling power shortage which peaked in December of 2022 but has only improving with the coming in of units 7and 8 at Hwange last year. The country is currently importing about 200MW from regional power suppliers to augment local generation which is still depressed as the main Hydro power station is restricted to producing less than a fifth of its installed capacity due to falling water levels
The current ElNino phenomenon characterised by low rainfall means Zimbabweans have to brace themselves for more power cuts as generation at Kariba is anticipated to remain leashed and with winter wheat production coming soon.
Analyst have urged the government to be proactive and make it mandatory for new investors in big mining projects to put up proposals that include power generation to service their operations as done by Dinson which has a power generation plan to support operations, this, as Zimbabwe Power Company, the generation arm of ZESA ,has made it clear, they have no money for expansion but only operations and servicing of debts.