By Staff Reporter
Zimbabweans are set to endure worsening power cuts after ZESA Holdings announced that Hwange Power Station’s Unit 8 has been taken off the grid for 10 days due to a technical fault, further straining the country’s already fragile electricity supply.
The shutdown comes at a time when Unit 3 has been offline since September 10 for statutory maintenance, which is expected to be completed by October 24.
As of October 21, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) was generating 1,296MW, far below the country’s peak demand of around 2,000MW.
In a statement released Tuesday, ZESA said Unit 8 will remain out of service for 10 days to allow for restoration work.
“ZESA Holdings wishes to inform its valued stakeholders that Hwange Unit 8 has been taken off the grid due to a technical fault. The unit will be out of service for 10 days while restoration work is carried out.
During this outage, Hwange Unit 7 will remain in operation, generating 335MW to support system stability,” the statement read.
The utility added that power generation at Kariba South has been increased to help mitigate the temporary shortfall.
“Generation at Kariba South Power Station has also been ramped up, with careful management of water allocations, to help compensate for the temporary shortfall.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we work to restore the unit to service.”
Urban areas across Zimbabwe have already been experiencing up to 20 hours of load-shedding daily, a situation expected to worsen during the Unit 8 shutdown period.