ZPC Misses Power Production Target

The Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) missed its production target in the first quarter by 5 percent, sending out a total of 1789.80 gigawatts hour (GWh) of energy against a target of 1902.76GWh.

Managing Director Noah Gwariro attributed the low production to inadequate coal supplies, water conservation measures at Lake Kariba, as well as numerous boiler tube leaks and outages at Hwange Power Station.

“Coal suppliers failed to meet their delivery targets for the quarter due to various challenges being faced by the coal miners, chief amongst them being delayed recapitalization for key mining equipment and cash flows,” he said in an update.

“This challenge is therefore preventing most of the miners from processing adequate coal required to meet their delivery targets to the stations”.

Gwariro added that during the quarter, ZPC had managed to settle its debts with coal miner Makomo Resources and make prepayments for fresh supplies resulting in the resumption of supplies from Makomo on the 15th of June 2017.

Gwariro said Lake Kariba is currently 56.20 percent full with water levels rising from 481.01 metres at the end of the first quarter to 483.19 metres at the end of June 2017.

Compared to the same time last year the water level at Kariba was 480.31metres.

The power situation in the southern African nation has stabilised in recent times, largely due to sustained imports of 350MW and a drop in demand from 2,200MW to 1,450MW as industrial capacity continues to decline in a deteriorating economy.