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Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
The country should brace for more power outages after a fire broke out and damaged Unit One at Hwange Power Station on Wednesday evening.

In an update on the situation today, Zesa Holdings said the fire outbreak will result in load curtailment of up to 300MW at evening peak (between 4pm and 8:30pm).

“The fire, which broke out in the Unit 1 boiler room, caused damage to power cables and other equipment. However, we were able to isolate all systems in order to prevent potentially more serious damage.

“The fire lasted for 40 minutes and measures to manage further risk were implemented. Investigations on the extent of the damage caused by the fire are currently underway. There were no casualties arising from the fire,” Zesa said in the statement.

The fire broke out in the unit 1 boiler as a result of a leak in the diesel supply line. The power utility also said efforts were underway to restore services to optimum levels by bringing back Units 2 and 5 at the Power Station.

It urged all customers to use the available power sparingly.

Hwange Power Station, is the country’s largest thermal power producer with an installed capacity of 920MW. It was however, only producing 293MW, according to the power generation update released on Monday by the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC).