Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. ZESA Holdings is mulling more tariff increases, saying it lost US$3.7 billion over the years because of below-cost tariffs.
The power utility was recently awarded a US$0.002 per kilowatt hour tariff increase by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA).
ZESA’s power distribution arm, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company (ZETDC), then increased the tariff from US$0.10 per kilowatt-hour to US$0.12, which is still slightly below the regional average of US$0.1254.
Speaking during the State of the Mining Industry report breakfast seminar held in Bulawayo last week, ZETDC acting managing director Abel Gurupira said the power utility requires US$2.8 billion to revamp Hwange Power Station units 1 to 6. NewsDay quoted Gurupira as saying:
We are looking at US$2.8 billion that we need for rehabilitation and repowering, maintenance and the construction of Hwange Units 1 to 6. Unfortunately, the country has ceased to be credit-worthy.
Who will want to invest when you cannot recoup? We have lost almost US$3.7 billion because of below-cost tariffs.
Zimbabwe is currently experiencing heightened load shedding as Hwange’s Unit 7 is undergoing its 30 days mandatory maintenance process which would be followed by Unit 8.
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