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Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority has granted licence to the Zimbabwe Power Company for the expansion of Hwange Power Station.

ZERA published a notice yesterday that it had given a power generation licence to Hwange Electricity Supply Company, a vehicle established to build units 7 and 8 at HPS.

“The notice is in relation to the Hwange Power Station’s stage three expansion,” ZERA chief executive Ms Gloria Magombo said.

Last year, Government contracted Sino-Hydro to build two units at the country’s largest power plant in terms of capacity, at a cost of $1,5 billion. The project will add 600 megawatts onto the grid.

The expansion project is expected to be completed within 42 months, according to the contractor.

Under the deal, the Zimbabwe Power Company will get $1,17 billion or 80 percent of the funds for the plant, through concessionary funding from China’s EximBank Limited, while the same institution will provide the balance at commercial rates.

ZPC, the power generating unit of ZESA Holdings, managing director Mr Noah Gwariro said last week that his company and Sino Hydro were now working on the financial closure with the project expected to start in the “final quarter of early next year”.

HPS has a designed capacity to produce 940 MW, but sometimes produces less than half of its potential due to higher failure rate resulting in the use of older machines.

Yesterday, the plant was generating only 319 MW, ZPC said in its daily generation report.

The contract to expand the power plant was initially given to China Machinery Engineering Company, but was cancelled after it had failed to show capacity to raise the money

A team of experts from ZPC visited China from 16-23 September to conduct a due diligence on the capacity of Sino-Hydro to build thermal power plants, since it is widely known for hydro power plants.

ZPC visited two of three thermal power stations Sino-Hydro has constructed in China under partnerships with local authorities.

Sino-Hydro owns 70 percent of the power stations. One of the power stations visited has capacity to produce 620MWx2 while the second, with design capacity for 3 000 megawatts has only phase one completed and is producing 750 megawatts.

Sino Hydro was also contracted to expand Kariba Hydro Power Station.