Low power generation may not be our biggest problem – transmission infrastructure dilapidated

Ever been in a position where you had very low expectations and still ended up disappointed? ZESA, ZETDC and ZPC just did that to me, for the umpteenth time. In August and September, it appeared the worst of load shedding was behind us but the end of October brought us back to the stone age.

At Hwange, power generation fell from the 900-1000MW range we had been getting to 650MW on the 23rd of October. It was down to 469MW by the 25th.

They gave an explanation but we’re kind of done listening. Whatever it is, however justified it is, however sanctions are to blame, the result is the same – gas cookers are firing up across the nation. Okay, what is it this time?

Technical faults at Hwange, of course. Nothing new here, I cannot count how many times these kinds of unspecified ‘technical faults’ have plunged us into darkness.

Unit 7 and 8 maintenance

More importantly, Hwange Unit 7 is under ‘Class C Maintenance,’ which apparently is a statutory procedure. This bad boy contributes at most 300MW to the national grid and it is offline for maintenance. It is expected to come back online at the end of this month.

So, we should expect the month of November to suck. It’s gonna be more of what we’re experiencing right now. However, we can moan with the knowledge that Unit 7 will come back online and load-shedding will ease.

However, this all means Unit 8, the other 300MW unit which went live this year like Unit 7 will have to undergo its own Class C maintenance at some point. So we can look forward to another month in the future with this level of load-shedding.

Transmission

That’s not all. We are currently in the early stages of the rainy season, and ZETDC has informed us that this period typically experiences a higher frequency of issues. This can be attributed to various factors such as trees falling onto power lines, strong winds causing damage, and rain toppling utility poles.

We have talked to a few ZETDC engineers off the record who have claimed that apart from the maintenance above, power generation is no longer our biggest problem – transmission is. The infrastructure that gets the electricity from Kariba and Hwange to your home is old and prone to breaking down.

The engineers are on to something because, in my neighbourhood, the underground power cables are often breaking down. Every other day we see ZESA engineers digging up holes and dealing with transmission cables.

This problem is not helped by thieves who raid substations and even neighbourhood transformers, helping themselves to solar panels, batteries, copper and whatever else they find valuable.

So, while we are all focused on ZPC’s low power generation, the transmission problem has largely gone under the radar.

Go solar

If you can, just remove any dependence you have on the national grid. That would save you a lot of headaches. If solar is beyond reach at the moment, just know that ZESA will have good and bad days. It won’t be this bad always.

Power generation has improved since the 400’s we were getting at the end of October. ZPC reports that Hwange is producing around 710MW, Kariba 490MW and independent power producers 38MW.

Also read:

Hwange Unit 7 Synchronization. How a power generator unit is synchronized

Samansco’s Solar Symposium, New Solar Batteries, and insightful solar presentations

Zim could meet 50% of electricity demand using solar by 2025, says govt. From which projects?