A Russian business delegation is due in Zimbabwe on Sunday to sign a deal worth $150-million for the construction of mini hydro-power stations, reports said.
The delegation, from Russia’s Turbo Engineering, was expected to sign the deal this week for the construction of 17 power stations on small dams around the Southern African country, reported the official Sunday Mail newspaper.
Zimbabwe badly needs any help it can get to boost power supply. The country has been facing acute shortages of power due to sub-economic tariffs, vandalism of equipment and shortages of coal.
There were warnings last week that a new round of power cuts — some of them lasting for up to 10 hours — was imminent.
Under the agreement Turbo Engineering will manufacture and install turbines and other equipment. Zimbabwe’s central bank will foot the bill.
”We were in Russia last month to do some due diligence on the company and we were pleased with what we saw,” said Ben Rafemoyo, the acting group chief executive officer of Zesa, the state-run power utility.
We checked their capacity, their factories and the work they have done, he added.
The power project will yield more than 120 megawatts of power and will be done over four phases, said the paper. Zimbabwe has a power deficit of more than 700 megawatts.
The country is likely to be hard-hit by power shortages in the region this year. Zimbabwe usually imports 35% of its power.
Earlier this month Zesa announced that thousands of Harare residents, mainly in poor suburbs like Mabvuku, Highfield and Kambuzuma were without electricity because 80 power transformers had been vandalised.
Desperate Zimbabweans, facing poverty and the worlds highest rate of inflation at more than 1 200%, steal power cables and drain oil from power transformers for resale as a substitute for diesel in the fuel-starved nation. – Sapa-DPA