Innocent Mujeri

The Manicaland Province-based Green Fuels (Pvt) Limited Company has increased electricity generation capacity by almost 100 percent and is feeding the surplus power to the national grid.

This was revealed to Manicaland Province Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Nokhula Matsikenyeri, during her recent tour of Green Fuel’s ethanol plant. During the tour, it was revealed that Green Fuels was previously generating 6.5 megawatts, but has since increased the output to approximately 10 megawatts This follows the installation and commissioning of a new 15 kilo vaults transformer to augment the existing 10 kilo vaults transformer.

The increase in electricity generation at Green Fuels is expected to benefit the country as the company would feed excess power to the national grid. In all its operations, Green Fuels only need about 2.5 megawatts and a surplus of nearly 8 megawatts would be fed into the national grid.

During Minister Matsikenyeri’s tour, it was also revealed that the company is ready to surrender a 45 hectare sugar cane plantation to selected beneficiaries as a form of local empowerment.

The efforts by Green Fuels to increase electricity generation are in line with Government’s vision of having adequate power to spur economic growth in the country.

Under the Government’s National Development Strategy 1, Government intends to increase electricity supply from 2317 megawatts installed capacity to 3467 megawatts by 2025. In addition, the Government has plans to construct 280 kilometres of electricity transmission lines across the country with the main aim of stopping all electricity imports by 2025.

Government is also not sitting on its laurels as it has also licensed over 80 independent power producers (IPPs). These IPPs have the capacity to add a combined 7 000 megawatts to the national grid, more than three times the national requirement.