ZETDC the ZESA arm responsible for delivering power to final users has issued an apology over yesterday’s (27 September 2022) nationwide power outage that left most of the nation without power at around 10:30 AM yesterday. The power utility said that the power outage was unplanned and due to a technical fault at Alaska-Warren which links Harare and Kariba. The issue has since been resolved by ZESA’s engineers and now the nation is back to the painful intensive load-shedding announced on the 24th of September.

NOTICE: TRANSMISSION SYSTEM DISRUPTION

Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission & Distribution Company (ZETDC) would like to apologize to its valued customers for an unplanned nationwide power outage that happened at 1026HRS. This was due to an abrupt system disturbance on the Alaska-Warren high voltage transmission powerlines (Linking Kariba and Harare). This has since been resolved by our Engineers.

Further to our communication on the 24th of September 2022, customers are encouraged to use electricity sparingly as the national grid is still experiencing depressed generation.

The inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted.

ZESA’s apology

Power deficit continues to haunt Zimbabwe

ZESA has been struggling with a power deficit that emerged at the start of this century. While the power utility produces 1400MW of power on a good day, the peak demand for power stands at around 2400MW. This means that there is a massive deficit that ZESA has struggled to bridge. In the past ZESA has relied on imports from Eskom in South Africa and Mozambique but there is a general power crisis in the SADC region which has seen imports from South Africa being curtailed.