Zimbabwe has signed a $455 million, 15-year concession agreement with the African unit of India’s Jindal Steel to refurbish a 920-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant, Reuters reported on Wednesday, September 17.
Work on six ageing units at the Hwange thermal power station is expected to take four years, according to Energy Minister July Moyo, who spoke at a press conference following Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. Jindal Africa will recover its investment through revenues generated from electricity sales from the plant.
Currently, the southern African nation meets only about half of its 2,000 MW electricity demand and faces frequent, prolonged power outages due to declining capacity at its ageing plants.
Hwange, Zimbabwe’s largest power station with a capacity of 1,520 MW, was partially upgraded in 2023 with the commissioning of two new units adding 600 MW. However, its older units—built in the 1980s—are running at just a third of capacity due to breakdowns.
The Kariba hydroelectric plant, built in the 1960s, completed a 300 MW upgrade in 2018, raising its capacity to 1,050 MW. Still, its generation capacity has been hampered in recent years by drought.
Source: Diário Económico
