Zimbabweans are bracing themselves for an escalation in electricity outages as reports emerge of a technical glitch crippling the generation capacity of one of the country’s key power stations.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) warned on Wednesday of a deepening power crisis, attributing the surge in outages to a major technical fault at the Hwange Thermal Power Station.
“ZESA Holdings would like to advise its valued stakeholders that the national power grid is currently experiencing reduced electricity generation capacity due to a technical fault at Hwange Power Station,” the state-owned utility said in a statement.
It announced that the latest strain on the national power grid was exacerbated by diminished generation capacity at the Kariba Power Station, a consequence of dwindling water levels.
The ongoing challenges have plunged businesses, government offices and households into prolonged periods of darkness, with those in the capital Harare experiencing loadshedding periods as long as 20 hours a day.
The setback at the Hwange Thermal Power Station follows a pattern of recurrent disruptions that have been experienced since 2000.
With apparently no permanent solution to the energy crisis, the successive incidents have underscored the fragility of Zimbabwe’s energy infrastructure at a time the country is trying to reindustrialise its economy.
JN/APA