The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority plans to increase power production this month after completing repairs to a generator at the Hwange plant.

“Hwange’s capacity will increase by 160 megawatts from the current 470 megawatts,” Zesa spokesman Fullard Gwasira said in a telephone interview from the capital, Harare, today.

At full capacity in the 1990s Hwange, in the country’s west, produced 980 megawatts. Shortages of coal and aging equipment hampered production over the last decade, during which Zimbabwe went through its worst-ever economic recession.

Zimbabwe needs 2,700 megawatts to meet demand from industry, mines and private consumers. It imports electricity from Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, and rations power to most users, with daily cuts of four to five hours.

Zimbabwe is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest consumer of electricity after South Africa and Nigeria, according to the CIA World Fact Book website.

The country’s Kariba South hydroelectric plant is producing its maximum 750 megawatts, Gwasira said. Coal deliveries to Hwange have improved, with the Hwange Colliery Co. supplying about 216,000 metric tons of the fuel, enough for 20 days of power production, he said.

By Bloomberg