Jasper Hloka

Government is on an overdrive to mitigate the current power outages and fuel situation in the country as it dispatches the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy and Power Development on a tour of the country’s Renewal Power Plant Stations from 23 to 27 June 2019.

The tour comes on the heels of a similar one held in the country’s hydro and thermal power stations in May 2019.

The Committee led by legislator, Joel Gebbuza, will tour Mutoko, Feruka, Chisumbanje and Triangle as it assesses the situation and capacity of the renewable power sources to address the problems in the Zimbabwe’s Energy and Power industry. Government on 20 June 2019 commissioned a 99 kilowatt solar project in Ward 19 Mashaba in Gwanda District which was core-funded by the European Union (EU). The project will see at least 10 000 people in 2 800 households benefiting from the initiative.

Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) acting Chief Operations Officer, Engineer Maswera, remarked that it was high time Government moved with pace to explore alternative sources of power. Eng Maswera posited that “given the poor hydraulics at Kariba Power Plant, it is imperative to consider alternative sources of power and keep the country powered.”

ZPC is currently undertaking a massive load shedding as it grapples to balance between power demand and the declining water levels at Kariba which are a direct bearing of poor rains that characterised the 2018 rainy season.