Hwange Unit 8 Output Reaches 355 Megawatts

Hwange Thermal Power Station’s Unit 8, which is undergoing a series of performance tests, achieved its first full capacity of 355 megawatts (MW) on Tuesday, 14 June 2023.

This was revealed by the contractor, Power Construction Corporation of China, in a post on their Twitter page. Reads the post:

The output of Hwange Unit 8 first achieved its full capacity of 355MW on June 13, and then Unit 8 will subsequently carry out a series of performance experiments.

The Hwange Units 7 and 8 expansion project is being carried out at a cost of about US$1.4 billion.

Unit 7, which was synchronised onto the national grid on 20 March this year, is now commercially available and is generating at its 300 MW full capacity.

The completion of the two Units will add a cumulative 600MW to the grid.

ZESA Holdings has managed to reduce load shedding across the country as a result of increased water allocation from Kariba Dam for the Kariba Hydro-power station, as well as ongoing work at the Hwange Thermal Power Station which is Zimbabwe’s largest power plant by installed capacity.

On Wednesday, 14 June, the Zimbabwe Power Company was generating a total of 1 717 MW.

Hwange was generating 810 MW while Kariba was producing 907 MW.

More: Pindula News