Energy Minister Zhemu Soda says the testing of the Hwange Unit 7 is nearing completion and will subsequently be followed by its commissioning.
The Unit will produce 300MW adding to an already dilapidated national grid which was heavily affected by the temporary and Unit 8, which is scheduled to be commissioned later in this quarter will also have the same capacity.
Soda said engineers are now finalising works on the protection system that allows the evacuation of power from the Unit to the grid.
“The testing of the power plant was done and passed. We are only left with the testing of the protection system that allows for the evacuation of power to the transmission system and a team from China only came into the country in mid-December when we initially expected them in November.
“There was also a delay in their understanding of all the systems; we are now expecting them to complete the test in three weeks and to have the plant run by end of this month,” Soda said.
After the commissioning of Hwange 7 and 8, ZESA intends to start major rehabilitation of the existing units to restore their capacity to 930 MW.
