Energy and Power Development minister Zhemu Soda Sunday said the decline in the quantity of power generated at Kariba is as a result of natural causes, NewsDay reported.
His remarks come after the Zimbabwe Power Company, a subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), was directed by the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) to scale down operations at Kariba South Hydropower Station to allow water to refill at Kariba Dam.
ZPC stated on 5 December 2022 (today) that only 200MW were being generated at the plant.
The situation means Zimbabwe will likely have prolonged power cuts. Commenting on the situation while addressing journalists in Harare, Soda said:
The government is making an intervention. This is a crisis situation and we hope through that intervention, funding will be available to apply for the additional capacity which we are looking forward to getting from our neighbours.
The ministry urges all consumers to reduce load by employing energy conservation and efficiency measures. Lights must be switched off in all offices at night and other measures like rightsizing of equipment, use of energy savers.
Over and above the above measures, government is pursuing a medium to long-term plan to meet the power needs of the country. The government is supporting the acceleration of implementation of renewable energy projects by independent power producers.
Government has identified some solar sites where it will fast-track implementation and pre-feasibility studies have already been done. It must be noted that the situation at Kariba is mainly due to natural causes and the ministry is doing all in its power to avert the situation.
The Zimbabwean government has turned to neighbouring countries seeking to increase imports from the region and replace 300MW lost through restrictions at Kariba.
Currently, Zimbabwe is importing a combined 250 megawatts (MW) from South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique.
Additional negotiations are ongoing, with 150MW expected from Mozambique, Soda said.
Zhemu made the remarks after hopes to import more power from Zambia were dampened with the neighbouring country introducing a six-hour daily load-shedding regime starting on December 15.
Zimbabwe had hoped to plug the supply gap with additional power imports from Zambia.
However, the latest developments mean continued power imports from Zambia is no longer guaranteed.
Soda akabva nepi uyo.. 🚮
Dzoserai Chasi pabasa @fortunechasi
@Mike. Pakungoda kuti vabve vese. It's the whole system that's infested with corrupt maggots & filled with moral decadence. Asiwo Soda azonyanya kutibikira Derere panhau yemagetsi. Vamwe vanoti aiva Runner wemukuru achiri kuCOTTCO. Hameno kuti kurima donje kuMuzarabani kune hukama hupi ne Ministry of Energy?
Zvinoda kuti papinde munhu akashanda ku zesa for many years not munhu akamboita zvedonje donje rinota nezvema getsi her ndokusaka nyika ichifa chasi ahana kumbo bvira ashanda kuma getsi aito fudza mombe kuchiweshe uko
It is a well know fact that Chamisa during the days of his tenure as leader of the MDC he went to Madagascar to enlist the service of a witch doctor to make Zimbabwe pay. If you remember the days that he coined the theme "KUDIRA JECHA". It is very unfortunate the results are now being felt today when we had already fired him from our party. President Dougie Mwonzora will correct this unfortunate incident because he cares. Mwonzora ndizvo chinja maitiro maitiro chinja🖐️🖐️🖐️🖐️🖐️
Gods must be angry....Zambezi kupera mvura? We can only fear for the old damwall that it might be swept away by the mighty Zambezi. We once had the biggest diamond deposit in Marange, but alas nothing came out of it or to show. But look Botswana ' s megre diamond made a considerable facelift of that country...but when it comes to the accursed land all hopes of prosperity just flops. Gods must be angry.