Zimbabwe has concluded a five-year agreement to import 100 megawatts of power a day from Zambia and is in the process of negotiating another deal that will see it importing a further 150MW from Mozambique, a senior official said on Monday.
Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) acting managing director Howard Choga said Zimbabwe would start receiving 100MW from Zambia’s state-owned power utility ZESCO in early August.
According to Choga, the agreement with ZESCO was signed some time ago but could not be consummated since the Zambian power utility was demanding payment upfront.
“We have to prepay them a month before we receive the electricity,” Choga told state media here.
He said ZETDC expected its prepayment to ZESCO “to be settled in the coming weeks and we will start receiving 100MW from Zambia.”
He revealed that a delegation from Mozambique was expected in Zimbabwe this week to finalise negotiations to supply an additional 150 MW to ease ongoing power cuts.
Zimbabwe currently imports 50MW from Cahora Bassa and 50MW from Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) in Mozambique.
“We had signed a deal for 200MW with EDM, but we were only accessing 50MW,” Choga said.
He added: “They will be in the country for the whole week so we will discuss how we can access the remaining 150MW.”
Zimbabwe has experienced rolling electricity outages in recent weeks due to depressed generation at its main power plants.
NM/jn/APA