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The Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) says output at Harare thermal power station will double to 60 megawatts by the end of April this year when repair work of the Turbo-Alternator number 1 (TA1) of Unit 3 is complete.

In a statement, the power company said the TA1 was taken out of service in July 2011 after succumbing to vibrations which resulted in thermal shock and bending of the high pressure rotor.

“A local contractor, Helcraw Electrical, was awarded a tender in May 2013 to facilitate repair of the rotor.

“The contractor has been working with Hyderabad of India to balance the Low Pressure rotors and straighten the High Pressure rotor,” it said.

“A report from Harare Power Station indicated that assembly works commenced on the 23rd of March 2015 and work is expected to be completed by the end of April 2015, thereby making Turbo Alternator No 1 commercially available with a load of 30 MW.”

It added, “Harare Power Station’s generating capacity will double from the current 30 MW to 60 MW, a significant contribution towards curbing the power shortages in the country.”

Meanwhile, according to statistics from the ZPC, power generation stood at 1 158 MW on yesterday against a peak national demand of 2 000 MW.

Hwange power station was generating 427 MW while Kariba power station was doing 683 MW.

The smaller power stations Munyati and Bulawayo were generating 24 MW respectively while Harare was out of service.

Zimbabwe is currently facing power shortages as national power demand at peak periods is estimated at over 2 000 MW as demand is far outstripping generating capacity resulting in the shortfall being imported from regional power utilities.

Due to the power deficit the government, through the ZPC, has embarked on several projects to increase generating capacity through expanding existing power stations and building new ones.

Work is in progress to expand Kariba Power Station by an additional two units which will add a combined 300 MW to the national grid on completion in 2018.

Plans are also afoot to add two units at Hwange Power Station which would have a combined generation capacity of 600 megawatts.

Zimbabwe is also working with the Zambian government to build a power station on the Batoka Gorge of the Zambezi River which is expected to generate 1 600MW of electricity to be shared equally by the two countries when complete – New Ziana.