HARARE – Energy Minister Elias Mudzuri on Monday said he ordered the country’s power utility – Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) – to stop exporting power to Namibia since the Hwange power station was not working properly.

“We can’t import power to export to Namibia when Hwange power station is not producing,” Mudzuri told ZimOnline.

In 2007, ZESA entered a deal with the Namibian utility NamPower in which it provided a US$40 million loan to refurbish Hwange power station. In return ZESA was supposed to supply electricity to Namibia.

But Mudzuri said Hwange power station was not able to generate electricity for export to Namibia resulting in the country buying power for NamPower.

“That deal was for Hwange only and it must not affect the entire operations of the country. It can only be implemented if Hwange is properly running. I have ordered ZESA not to supply electricity to Namibia until Hwange is running,” said Mudzuri, adding that the deal that ZESA and Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) entered into would be confined to Bulawayo power station only.

Last year BPC agreed to inject US$8 million to revive the mothballed Bulawayo thermal power station, which has not produced electricity for nearly a decade. BPC will receive electricity from the Bulawayo thermal station.

“If Bulawayo is not generating power, we cannot have electricity from elsewhere being exported to Botswana,” said Mudzuri.

Mudzuri said it would take up five years for the country to be able to generate enough electricity for itself.

“That can be shorter but electricity might be expensive,” said Mudzuri. “Our plants are old and have outlived their life span most of them. That means they become expensive to use since they are no longer efficient.”

ZESA’s inability over the years to boost generation capacity at its ageing power stations and a critical shortage of foreign currency to import adequate electricity from neighbouring countries has left Zimbabwe grappling with severe power shortages.

By Zimonline