Zimbabwe will this coming winter implement a drastic power-rationing programme which will see whole cities and regions of the country switched off for periods ranging up to five hours, the state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZEDC) said on Monday.
Winter officially begins in June and demand for electricity — which, like every other basic survival commodity, is already in critically short supply in Zimbabwe — is high during the cold winter months that end in August.
In a circular to captains of industry and commerce, a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline, the ZEDC warned the business leaders to expect more severe load-shedding with prolonged blackouts ”in the event of severe [electricity] supply deficiencies”.
”Owing to the precarious nature of electricity supplies in the country over the winter peak-load period, ZEDC may [on an as-when-required basis] have to curtail demand in order to maintain supply and demand balance, particularly during peak-loading times, which are usually 06:00 to 10:00 hours [mornings] and 17:00 to 21:00 hours [evenings],” the ZEDC memo reads in part.
Consumers in Harare and in the dormitory city of Chitungwiza, about 20km south of the capital, will be the first to experience load-shedding on June 1, with the rest of the country to follow in subsequent weeks.
But the ZEDC emphasised it may disregard the load-shedding programme and may switch off certain areas in cities for whatever period and without advance warning in the event of a serious deficit in power supplies.
The proposed winter supply cuts come at a time when the state power utility is battling to raise foreign currency to pay for imports from South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique, who supply 40% of the country’s power requirements.
The three countries, especially South Africa, experience winter around the same time as Zimbabwe and therefore will be unable to maintain the same level of power exports to their crisis-hit neighbour.
Zimbabweans — grappling their worst-ever economic crisis — will most likely be little perturbed by impending power cuts, used as they are to making do with little or none of most basic goods such as fuel, essential medical drugs, clean water in cities and food because there is no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers. — ZimOnline