Bruce Chahwanda, Political Editor
ZIMBABWE is set to limit its power generation at its Kariba hydro Power Station after the Zimbabwe Power Company exhausted its annual water allocation.
Zimbabweans woke up to the news that Zimbabwe Power Company has exhausted its allocated water for 2022 for electricity generation at its Kariba Dam Hydro Power Station.
While there have been diverse interpretations of a correspondence between the Zambezi River Authority and Zimbabwe Power Company, the authority has since clarified that the power station has not been shut.
“On an annual basis, we allocate water for usage for the whole year for the utilities, and this year we allocated 45 billion cubic litres of water to be shared between ZESCO and ZPC, meaning 22.5 billion cubic litres each. Zesco still has 2.67 billion left and ZPC has none, we were informing them that they need to scale down as they have used their allocation,” said the CEO of ZRA, Engineer Munyaradzi Munodawafa.
Engineer Munodawafa said there are several options for ZPC, which they can explore to ensure continuous power generation for the benefit of the country and the region at large.
“They have to look at possibilities, we give them facts and the decision lies with the utility. The thing is a known issue, right now we have allocated water for next year, and each utility must plan accordingly. What we indicated to ZPC is that they must do something, best thing is to discuss with ZESCO that they can utilise their allocation considering they still have 2.7 billion cubic litres of water under their allocation,” he added.
Zimbabwe and Zambia draw water from Kariba Dam for purposes of power generation and both countries created the Zambezi River Authority to regulate and manage the Kariba dam.
