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Eng Chifamba

Herald Reporter
Zesa Holdings yesterday managed to restore power at its generating plants following disturbances in Zambia that left Zimbabwe, except for parts of Bulawayo, in total darkness on Monday.

The Zambians, according to zesa chief executive Engineer Josh Chifamba, lost 600 megawatts at the Copper Belt power station and due to the inter-connectedness of 12 countries, the problem affected Zimbabwe.

zesa lost Kariba South and Hwange Power Stations for more than seven hours, affecting all areas except some parts of Bulawayo that benefited from power supplies from South Africa via the local receiving substation, Insukhamini.

Eng Chifamba said yesterday the system was “up and running.”

“We have established that the problem emanated on the Zambian side, but now at Kariba all the six units are up and running,” he said.

“Two units have been running since 5am today (yesterday) and we expect the third unit to be running by the end of the day.”

Eng Chifamba added: “Harare and Bulawayo stations are also running and we are now receiving our imports from Hydro Cahora Bassa of Mozambique. All transmission lines have been restored and the system is normal since this morning (yesterday).”

This is not the first time that local power generating plants have been affected by faults in neighbouring countries as Hwange Thermal Power Station was last year affected by a major fault in South Africa, losing all units.

In Harare, most buidlings which are usually lit up during the night were in total darkness, but some were using generators for backup. The capital’s residential areas and streets were also left in the dark after the power outage.