08 December 2013, Harare – THE Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) is finalising a deal with a local financial institution to raise 10% of the funding for the expansion of the Kariba South Hydro Power, an official said.
The project will cost about US$355 million, with government through ZPC supplementing 10% which is about US$35 million. The China Exim Bank extended a US$32O million loan which will cater for the remaining 90% of the project funding.
“ZPC is currently working on getting the 10% remainder and we are working with a local bank,” ZPC public relations executive Fadzai Chisveto said this week.
“We have made a lot of progress in raising the 10% and there are just one or two issues that we need to sort out. We are hoping that by the end of this year or the beginning of next year we would have managed to raise it.”
She, however, declined to name the bank they were negotiating with for the funds.
Chisveto said the company would look at various measures to take, including looking at the tariff regime, in order to pay back the loan to China Exim Bank.
She said the expansion work to be carried out by Chinese company, Sino-Hydro, is set to commence within the first quarter of next year.
She said once the project was completed, it would add 300 megawatts to the national grid and significantly improve electricity supply.
Chisveto said they were working on the resuscitation of one of the turbo alternators at Harare Power Station 3 by the end of May next year that will increase power generation of Harare Power Station from the current 50 megawatts to 80 megawatts.
She added that preliminary work has begun for the Batoka project that will benefit both Zambia and Zimbabwe with an electricity generation of 800 megawatts each.
The project, she said, will be run by the Zambezi River Authority.
– Zimbabwe Independent
