by Wallace Mawire
Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Energy and Power Development has announced new projects to be implemented in 2013 to boost power capacity.
Minister Elton Mangoma told delegates at the second edition of the ZimBuild2012 infrastructure financing summit of the proposed initiatives.
He said that his ministry has achieved in coming up with a legal and institutional framework to improve generation capacity.
“The establishment of an independent regulator, the Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Authority (ZERA) is to facilitate a cost reflective tariff policy which is in line with SADC dictates,” Mangoma said.
He told delegates that Zimbabwe is to establish a 100MW solar power plant in Gwanda.
He said negotiations were at an advanced stage and they expect to establish the plant by June 2013 to improve the country’s generation capacity.
His ministry is also planning to start temporary generation at the gas-fired coal bed methane plant in Lupane next year.
“Tenders have gone out and preliminary indications show that there is a power generation potential capacity of 500MW at Lupane from the identified gas,” Mangoma said.
He also said that there are currently 15 registered independent power producers in the country who are helping to boost power generation.
He added that five large scale producers are generating from 500MW upwards combined.
He gave an example of Triangle which he said was generating at least 35MW.
The ZimBuild summit focused on policy framework updates from the central government infrastructure cluster.
It also included operational challenges,opportunities and developments in the sector.
It was held under the theme:Activating sustainable value chains in the built environment.