Matshela vows to stop load shedding

FORMER South Africa’s Eskom chief executive officer, Engineer Matshela Koko, says he will stop load shedding in Zimbabwe in the next 12 months with his company’s planned solar project expected to start next month.

The solar plant will be capable of producing a projected 100MW and is set to go a long way in easing the domestic supply gap of about 900MW. Matshela Energy has been awarded a 25-year licence to build a solar plant in Gwanda, Matabeleland South province. The project is expected to cost about $250 million.

“I can confidently say that there will be no load shedding in Zimbabwe in the next 12 months,” Koko posted on his Twitter handle.

“I stopped load shedding in SA and I will do so in Zimbabwe. We appreciate our partnership with @ZetdcOfficial, @ zeraenergy & the Ministry of Energy & Power Development. I can confidently say that, there will be no load shedding in Zimbabwe in the next 12 months.”

Zimbabwe is facing an electricity supply gap, which has led to rotational load shedding with outages lasting up to 18 hours. The country started implementing load shedding in May this year, due to a combination of low water levels at Kariba Dam’s hydroelectric power plant, generation constraints at ageing thermal power stations and limited foreign imports.

Eng Koko told our sister paper, The Sunday Mail, that the project would feed into the national grid within the next 12 months.

“The board of Zera [Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority] approved the issuance of the electricity generation licence to Matshela Energy for Phase 1. Total approximate investment for licensed generation facility: US$250m,” he said.

The project will create approximately 1 000 direct and indirect jobs, said Eng Koko. He said he had assembled a team of energy experts and investors from different parts of the world to embark on the project.

“Our partners will be on site in August to complete the detailed design for the power plant. We believe our team is competent and second to none and will deliver the project without fail.”

Eng Koko resigned from Eskom in early 2018. — Wires/Business Reporter.