Zimbabwe’s economy is losing billions of dollars due to ongoing load shedding caused by depressed power generation.
The unscheduled power cuts are affecting not only residential consumers but commercial and industrial users who have to endure between 8 and 10 hours without electricity.
Most businesses are now resorting to using backup diesel generators which are expensive to run.
According to ZESA Holdings’ electricity generating unit, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) website, 1 238 megawatts were generated on Wednesday against a national demand of about 1 800 megawatts (MW) at peak periods, with the electricity shortfall reaching 438MW.
Kariba Hydroelectric Power Station supplied 67% of the total electricity generated across ZESA’s five power stations at 829MW while the country’s largest coal-fired plant generated 390MW.
Munyati Power Station generated 19MW.
Harare and Bulawayo Power Stations did not generate electricity on Wednesday due to breakdowns.
To augment local supplies, the State-owned power utility, ZESA, imports from South Africa’s power utility Eskom, Hydro Cahora Bassa of Mozambique, and ZESCO of Zambia.
Zimbabwe is, however, not getting adequate imports as the regional power utilities are only obliged to supply electricity if they have a surplus.
South Africa’s also battling load shedding due to depressed generation and Eskom’s power plants.
More: Business Times