ZESA Holdings has lined up a US$12 million buffer to ramp up power imports from the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) as the utility moves to manage expected supply pressure during crucial maintenance at Hwange.
The intervention comes as Unit 8 at Hwange Thermal Power Station goes offline this week for a 35-day Class C overhaul — a deep technical service expected to be followed immediately by similar work on Unit 7. The two units, commissioned in 2023, have been key anchors of Zimbabwe’s baseload and account for over half of steady generation.
Speaking during a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee tour in Hwange on Saturday, ZESA acting chief executive engineer Cletus Nyachowe said the money secured will be channelled towards day-ahead energy purchases to plug gaps on the grid.
“We have put together a fund of US$12 million for the Southern African Power Pool. Power there is traded on the day-ahead market — you bid today for what you need tomorrow,” he said, noting that this flexibility allows the utility to balance demand with daily generation forecasts.
ZESA is combining imports with enhanced local generation to minimise the impact of the maintenance cycle.
At Kariba, the utility has been carefully managing water allocation to boost output during the holiday window.
“This year we were allocated 14 billion cubic metres. We followed our consumption pattern closely, which has saved water and will improve production during this period,” Nyachowe added.
He also acknowledged the pressure created by domestic tariffs and said ZESA is implementing measures to shield households, adding that a firmer Zimbabwe dollar will support foreign currency procurement for imports and maintenance.
Zimbabwe Power Company acting managing director, engineer Fannie Mavhondo, said despite the temporary loss of Hwange’s biggest units, the utility expects to operate with a positive generation balance.
“We will be generating an additional 120MW during the period Units 7 and 8 are down. Demand also drops over Christmas as industries scale back, so we anticipate a cushion,” he said.
With the 120MW plus other optimisations expected to bring the buffer to around 200MW, ZESA says it does not foresee severe load-shedding spikes during the festive season.
While the stopgap measures are expected to hold, the utility’s leadership emphasised that long-term energy security hinges on expanding the generation fleet.
Plans are already on the table for Hwange Units 9 to 12 — a new set of generators expected to inject an additional 600MW — alongside solar projects designed to strengthen resilience and diversify Zimbabwe’s energy mix.
