Mat North Correspondent
The Hwange Power Station (HPS) expansion project is now at 65 percent to completion owing to continued support by the New Dispensation, although COVID-19 delayed progress to some extent, an official has said.
Works at the site had been stalled by the COVID-19-induced travel restrictions, which saw the Chinese contractors being holed up in China for the better part of last year.
The expansion of units 7 and 8 at Hwange Thermal Power Station at the cost of US1.5 billion, which started in 2018 is set to add 600MW to the national grid by the end of 2022.
Currently, HPS has four 120MW units from the first phase, two 220MW units from the second stage .With the addition of two 300MW units from the new third phase units 7 and 8, the station will produce a total of 1520MW.
Project manager, Engineer Forbes Chanakira said COVID-19 negatively affected progress.
“By now Unit 7 should have started, but its start-up is now expected to commence on January 8, 2022, all things being equal. We should be at 90.08 percent overall now, but because of COVID-19 we are at 64.63 percent, with a delay of 258 days. COVID-19 affected design, manufacturing and logistics, manpower mobilisation,” he said.
Chanakira was speaking during the tour of the project, by the Matabeleland North Minister for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Richard Moyo and his delegation.
Minister Moyo pledged Government’s continued support to ensure the timeous completion of the project.
“We have seen that you are working despite the challenges and we are impressed by the amount of work going on. We will try to intervene in terms of funding and I will talk to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Mthuli Ncube,” Moyo said.
Minister Moyo applauded Government for investing huge amounts to the expansion of HPS.
“We would want to thank President Mnangagwa for investing such huge amounts of money to this project. Today we are visiting two years after he did ground breaking and we have seen that work is moving despite the challenges related to delays in releasing finances from Treasury,” said Minister Moyo.
The project is a joint venture between Sino Hydro Mauritius with 36 percent shares and the Zimbabwe Power Company with 64 percent, through a company called Hwange Electricity Supply Company.
