ZETDC is a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings.
BULAWAYO — A unit of ZESA Holdings has warned the country’s second largest city against repossessing Bulawayo Thermal Power Station, saying the amount of power generated by the station remains too little to meet the city’s electricity needs.
Bulawayo and Harare lost control of their thermal power stations in 1985 when government created ZESA, through an Act of Parliament.
In the face of acute power challenges bedevilling the country, council has been under pressure from residents and civic society organisations to engage government with a view to repossess the power station.
Bulawayo Power Station generates about 30 megawatts (MW). The city, according to estimates, needs nearly 300MW to satisfy its power requirements.
Lovemore Chinaka, the general manager of the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC)’s western region, this week said it would not make economic sense for Bulawayo to repossess the power station as it was producing only a tenth of the last recorded actual demand.
ZETDC is a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings.
Chinaka said the city would still need to remain connected to the national grid.
“We still need to import the other 90 percent into Bulawayo, so forget about that argument (repossession of the station), it doesn’t work,” said Chinaka.
“Be advised that the Bulawayo Power Station currently is producing about 30 MW and today it was doing about 24 MW and the last known peak, mind you, was around 26 MW and that was in 2004,” he said.
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