Kariba: How Zesa slept on the job

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THE Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) was warned of the depleted water levels at Kariba Dam as early as January but did not act until the situation deteriorated recently, leading to the introduction of a punishing load-shedding schedule.

THE Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) was warned of the depleted water levels at Kariba Dam as early as January but did not act until the situation deteriorated recently, leading to the introduction of a punishing load-shedding schedule.

BY VICTORIA MTOMBA Zimbabweans are going for an average of 18 hours a day without power and President Robert Mugabe last week blamed the crisis on drought. Zesa reduced generating capacity at the Kariba Power Station to 475 megawatts (MW) from 750 MW.

But the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) — which regulates the use of Kariba Dam by both Zimbabwe and Zambia and is run by the two governments — has told The Standard that something could have been done to forestall the crisis.

The authority warned the crisis could recur mid-next year as inflows into Kariba Dam this rainy season were expected to be low.

ZRA chief executive officer, Munyaradzi Munodawafa said each year both the Zambia Electricity Supply Company (Zesco) and Zesa were supplied with a combined 45 billion cubic litres of water.

“It was foreseen, that the water was coming down. Normally we plan for the coming year in August and now we have planned in August for next year,” he said.

“We do it on the basis of the metrological outlay given to us.”

He said they first noticed that water levels were falling at an unusual rate during the first week of January, prompting them to write to the two utilities.

“When we came to December [2014], our tracking indicated that the level was following the normal pattern. It was only in the second week of January when we noticed that the flows were no longer following the normal track of water,” he said.

“We wrote to the utilities with the intention of informing them to operate within their monthly allocation and not to exceed.”

He said although Zesa and Zesco were supposed to reduce the usage in small amounts every month, it was not possible because of peak demand in winter.

“They should have reduced the load in small quantities but it was not possible because of winter where there is high demand,” he said.

“Now they are trying to cover up for the winter period. That is why the load-shedding is now too much,”

Munodawafa said the base load for Zambia and Zimbabwe was between 1 500 and 2 000 megawatts (MW) and it goes up to 2 000MW when things are normal.

Munodawafa said ZRA issued the warning after checking the metrological forecast for Zimbabwe and Zambia.

“It appeared that areas that were supposed to get good rainfall did not,” he said.

“We then communicated to the utilities that the situation was not good and by that time, we did not want to be alarmist. We wrote to the utilities to tell them to operate within their monthly allocations.”

He said Zambia in July used 77% of its allocation, while Zimbabwe used 63%. Munodawafa said the problem was likely to recur next year as inflows into Kariba Dam were expected to be low.

“We are hoping, on a worst case scenario, that at least the two utilities will generate something next year and the maximum would be 750MW between Kariba North and South,” he said.

Zimbabwe consumes 2 000MW of electricity but as of yesterday, Zesa was generating 1 034 MW.

Former Zambian Acting President Guy Scott said the overuse of the Kariba Dam by the two countries drove water levels down to 29% of capacity last month, from 70% a year ago.