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Martin Kadzere Senior Business Reporter
A UNITED Kingdom-based company intends to build a 15 megawatt hydro power station in Nyanga at a cost of US$30 million. The hydro power project — Honde Valley Hydro — will commence once the company has obtained all necessary construction permits, sources familiar with the plans said yesterday.
“The construction is set to begin once all approvals are obtained from relevant authorities and will take between 18 and 24 months to complete. If successfully tested, it will be connected to the national grid,” said one source on condition of anonymity.
The Honde Valley area has three operational mini hydro power stations namely the Nyamingura Mini Hydro, Dura Mini Hydro and Pungwe A Hydro power stations, all with combined capacity of 6MW. All plants are connected to the national grid.
Pungwe B Mini Hydro Plant is under construction and will have a generating capacity of 15MW.
Zimbabwe’s perennial power shortage has crippled operations of several companies, including mines while households are enduring long periods of power cuts.
Currently, the country is undertaking various projects aimed at boosting power supplies.
The country has a peak electricity demand of 2 200MW but is able to produce only 1 300MW. It also imports, mainly from Mozambique.
Work to expand Kariba South power plant is expected to commence early this year. The expansion is expected to boost output to 1 050MW from the current 750MW.
China’s Sino Hydro won the bid to expand the country’s second largest power station submitting the least cost price of US$355 million compared to other bidders.
Government has secured funding for the project, after signing a US$319 million deal with China Export and Import Bank about three months ago with Zimbabwe expected to contribute 10 percent of the total cost of the Kariba expansion exercise.
Namibian power utility NamPower is studying findings of the due diligence it conducted on Zimbabwe’s small thermal power stations as it prepares to rehabilitate Harare, Bulawayo and Munyati plants at an approximate cost of US$250 million.
The rehabilitation will see the small thermal power stations doubling generating capacity to close to 300MW. Preliminary investigations conducted by NamPower showed the “power stations are not in bad shape and with minimal investment can be brought into operation.”
China-Africa Sunlight Energy said it will invest US$250 million towards the construction of a power generation plant in Gwayi. The company is a joint venture between Old Stone Investments Limited of Zimbabwe and Shandong Taishan Sunlight.
However, plans to expand Hwange (Thermal) Power Station seem to have stalled after the Chinese contractor who won the tender to carry out the project, China Machinery Engineering Company, failed to secure funding eight months after winning the tender.
The lack of progress has allegedly raised strong reservations within Government, which is under pressure to close the demand supply gap that has spawned rolling power cuts.
While significant progress had been made in concluding technical negotiations for the ramping up of electricity generation capacity at Hwange Power Station, there has been no progress on the critical funding required to get the project off the ground.