ZPC misses Q1 production target

ZPC misses Q1 production target
Published: 15 August 2017
THE Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has missed its production target for the first quarter by 5.94 percent, generating 1 789.80 Gigawatts per hour against the targeted 1 902.76GWh.

ZPC managing director Engineer Noah Gwariro said the production target for the period was missed due to inadequate coal supplies at the small thermal power stations and water conservation measures at Lake Kariba.

Several boiler tube leaks and outages at Hwange Power Station, he said, also contributed to the power company failing to meet the targeted power output for the period under review.

"Coal suppliers failed to meet their delivery targets for the quarter due to various challenges being faced by the coal miners, chief among them being delayed recapitalisation on the key mining equipment and cash flows.

"This challenge is therefore preventing most of the miners from processing adequate coal required to meet their delivery targets to the stations," he said.

Eng Gwariro said the Makomo Small Thermals account was settled and prepayment for fresh supplies was made, resulting in the resumption of supplies from Makomo Resources on June 15.

"The Kariba lake level rose from 481.01 metres at the end of the first quarter to 483.19 metres at the end of June 2017.

"This represented a 2.18 metres rise in lake level over the quarter and the lake is 56.20 percent full.

"The lake level at the same time last year was 480.31 metres thus a 0.60 percent difference," he said, adding that the Kariba South Extension project was now at 91 percent to completion and on course to commissioning in December this year.

On Hwange Power Station unit 7 and 8 project, he said the project was progressing well.

"The project parties (ZPC and Sinohydro Corporation Limited) are finalising the conditions precedent of the main funding loan of $998m from the Export Import Bank of China. ZPC has cleared most of its conditions precedent.

Meanwhile, Sinohydro have initially subscribed for their 36 percent shareholding in the project company, Hwange Electricity Supply Company Private Limited.

To date, parties are now preparing to inject their respective bulk equity contributions into the project company.

Sinohydro and ZPC technical teams were on the ground in Hwange to finalise the project designs and project site plans.

"The Hwange project team also conducted a vendor quality surveillance on Sinohydro's subcontractors in the month of June 2017 and results were satisfactory," he said.
- online
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