Zimbabwe asked Mozambique and Zambia to supply it with more electricity as it tries to fill a power shortfall that’s led to outages of 12 hours a day.
“We are in discussions with Mozambique for the recently commissioned power plants to give us an additional 180 MW,” Energy Minister Soda Zhemu told lawmakers Wednesday, according to a transcript on parliament’s website. “We are also at final stage of discussion with Zambia to get an additional 100 MW”.
The current electricity cuts were because of rehabilitation work at the Kariba South hydropower plant, constraints at its coal-fired Hwange plant and limited power imports, according to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority.
A total of 1 276 MW was being produced by plants in the country on Thursday, according to data from the state-owned power company. Demand is at 1 700 MW. The two neighbouring countries currently supply Zimbabwe with as much as 170 MW of electricity.