THE government has signed contracts for consultancy work to support independent power producers (IPPs) in the country, a move aimed at addressing the crippling power outages and supporting economic growth.
This development comes as the country is grappling with severe load shedding due to low generation at Hwange Power Station and Kariba South Hydro Power Station.
As of Tuesday, Hwange was generating 899MW and Kariba 292MW, totalling 1 191MW, which falls short of the daily maximum demand of 1 825MW.
“All consultancy contracts have been signed and implementation is progressing well. The implementation period for the wind resource assessment is until June 2026,” the African Development Bank (AfDB) said in an update of a project titled Zimbabwe Energy Sector Reform Support, which it is funding.
The consultancy contracts that were signed by the government are part of the implementation of the AfDB project.
“The government is in the process of submitting a request to extend the project closing date from May 31, 2025 to June 30, 2026. All outcomes are expected to be achieved by the proposed new project closing date of June 30, 2026,” the bank said.
AfDB said six consultancy contracts had been signed.
“The latest to be signed is for the wind resource assessment consultancy, and this contract requires a 24 months implementation period from June 2024,” the bank said.
The request for an extension is meant to cover the wind resource assessment consultancy period.
The pan-African bank in November 2021 approved a loan of about US$3,57 million to the government to support the project, but has to date only disbursed US$143 772,91.
AfDB said overall project performance was rated satisfactory.
“All project outputs and objectives are expected to be achieved by the new proposed project closing date of June 30, 2026,” the bank said.
The purpose of the project is to facilitate the creation of an enabling environment for promoting IPPs.
According to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority, the country has high solar radiation averaging 20 megajoules per square metre and 3 000 hours of sunshine per year.
Solar photovoltaic technology has a potential of over 300MW, with only 1% of the technical potential for solar water heaters being exploited.
The regulator noted that wind energy resources remain largely untapped for use by consumers who are remote from the existing grid and for grid-connected systems.
It is estimated that 5 000MW can be harnessed along the Zambezi River which is shared with Zambia.
As of Tuesday, IPP projects were only generating 43MW.