Minister of Energy and Power Development, Zimbabwe：Zhemu Soda

According to the Mail on Sunday on January 23:

The recently completed Zimbabwe Citic Power (ZZEE) thermal power plant in Hwange will start supplying up to 50 megawatts of power to the national grid next weekend. In December 2021, a generator unit at the plant successfully passed transmission capacity tests. In 2020, President Mnangagwa inspected the project and expressed optimism that the province would lead the country's socio-economic transformation through initiatives such as power generation and water projects.

The production of ZZEE, which started in 2018 and was completed last month, will mark the end of the first phase of the project, which will generate 320 MEGAwatts of electricity when completed.

Zhemu Soda, Minister of Energy and Power, said: "In 2018, Zimbabwe Citic Electric Limited (ZZEE) started construction of a coal-fired thermal power plant in Hwange district. The plant consists of two 25MW generating units with a net output of 50MW. During 2021, ZZEE successfully completed construction work on power plants and transmission lines to connect and deliver electricity to the national grid. By December 2021, the company had solved all the problems except for integration into the grid, which required testing and commissioning of units."

"So far, unit 1 has been successfully tested, during which up to 23MW power was sent to the State Grid, and the test results are being processed. The second unit will follow a similar agreement and, all things being equal, will be ready for commercial production by the end of January 2022."

Testing and commissioning is being done by ZZEE's South African consultant ESP, the original manufacturer of the equipment, while engineers from the Zimbabwe Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) are overseeing the process.

ZZEE is one of the independent power generation companies involved in key development projects in Matabeleland North province, which are expected to drive increased investment in the region.

Zimbabwe has been experiencing power shortages due to power generation restrictions at the Hwange Thermal power Plant and disruptions at the southern Kariba power station due to dam repairs.

In addition, Soda minister also said that the hwange thermal power station expansion work has been completed more than 75%. One of the 300 megawatt units will be commissioned by the end of 2022 and the other by early 2023.

Several power development projects currently under development across the country are expected to increase. Local power generation capacity will increase from 2,280 MW at present to about 5,177 MW by 2030.