By Rudo Saungweme

The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Advocate Fortune Chasi has stated that 80MW was added to the national power grid yesterday following the bringing on stream of the Hwange Power Station Unit 4 by the Zimbabwe Power Company.

 The move will ease the prevailing power cuts being experienced in the country.

Chasi revealed the development when he posted the issue on his twitter handle this morning.

“Unit 4 Hwange firing started at 1522 hours yesterday. It was targeted to kick in at 2130 hours last night. As a result, we are expecting an 80 MW boost this morning to ease load shedding,” posted the Minister.

The unit was closed on 12 October 2014 to undergo a planned major refurbishment. The Unit was experiencing high end thrust problems, pin oil pressure and its turbine blades had faults.

Netizens have commended the hard work of curbing the challenges of electricity by Minister Chasi indicating that if the ministry continued to work hard like this, Zimbabwe will one day export power.

One netizen, Ngorima Phillip tweeted that Minister Chasi’s efforts were appreciated especially under the prevailing hard conditions being experienced in the country.

“Under the harsh conditions, your efforts are plausible, Sir. Keep trying your best. Don’t give up. A trip of a thousand miles starts with a few small steps. One day Zimbabwe will export power to other countries,” he posted.

This development comes barely a week after Minister Chasi stated that 160 MW had been added to the national grid, adding that Unit 6 was set to be opened up for inspection during the first week of September for fault diagnostics. Minister Chasi stated that Unit 6 would add 670 MW to the grid when functional.

This additional supply of 80 MW will result in continued improvements in power supply thereby providing relief to businesspeople and citizens who are going for hours without electricity.