Storms cost Zesa US $20m

AT LEAST 4 000 electricity transformers worth over US$20 million have been destroyed by vandalism and lightning, causing power outages in some parts of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said technicians and electricians were overwhelmed by the surging number of faults.

He said one transformer costs about US$5 000.

“Almost every part of the country is affected and our response team has been overstretched; that’s why it’s taking time to restore electricity. In some cases trees are falling on our lines while lightning is also striking other transformers. It is taking long for us to restore electricity but this is seasonal.

“Before the rain season we would restore electricity within 24 hours but due to the increased demand we are finding it difficult to replace in time. For example, if there was a problem say in Harare we would get support from Manicaland or any other province but as we speak almost every part of the coun- try is affected,” said Mr Gwasira.

The Zesa spokesman said theft of electrical equipment was also contributing to faults, adding that the power utility was working with law enforcement agencies to arrest culprits.

“The issue of vandalism and theft has been on the increase and this will affect the entire network in the respective area. We are failing to cope with the required rate of replacements and this has caused clients to go for long periods without electricity with the company losing on potential revenue,” he said.

Power generation and supply are key components in driving Government’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation, under the Utilities Cluster.

Zimbabwe is generating 1 400MW of electricity against national demand of about 2 200MW at peak periods, with the difference covered by imports from South Africa and Mozambique.

In 2015, Zesa lost about US$30 million through theft and vandalism of infrastructure.