Staff Writer

Power cuts are set to ease off by October, after Government secured a US$80 million loan from Afreximbank, to clear off power import bill arrears from regional suppliers.

According to a contact from Zesa Holdings, all is set for the disbursement of the loan to ease the blackouts agony currently obtaining in the country.

“The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) is expecting to seal a US$80 million deal with Afreximbank next month.

“The current load shedding programme will become a thing of the past soon. The loan which will be leveraging on exporting customers will be entirely used to amortize the power imports bill which has cumulatively grown to US$137.5 million,” said the contact.

According to information at hand, the balance totalling US$57.5 million will be sought from Treasury through the Ministry of Energy and Power Development.

Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) reported that local power generation stood at 1 348 MW as of 14 September 2021 against a national demand of 1675 MW for electricity, leaving a deficit of 327 MW rationed through load shedding.

Currently Hwange Thermal Power Station is generating 416 MW from four units 2, 3, 4 and 5 and Kariba South Power Station is generating 890 MW with seven units, while one of the units is reported to be out on routine maintenance.

Small thermal power stations were generating a total of 42 MW with Munyati generating 14 MW, Harare producing 12 MW, and Bulawayo Power Station generating 16 MW.