Zimbabwe has entered a 15-year concession agreement with Jindal Africa, the subsidiary of India’s Jindal Steel, for a value of $455m to rehabilitate the 920MW coal-fired Hwange thermal power plant.
The refurbishment project, announced by the country’s energy minister July Moyo, will focus on revitalising six ageing units over four years, reported Reuters.
Under the agreement, Jindal will finance, rehabilitate, and operate the thermal units for 15 years before transferring them back to Zimbabwe Power Company, the state-run producer and distributor.
Jindal Africa will recoup its investment through electricity sales, thereby reducing financial and operational risks for the government.
Zimbabwe is presently able to fulfil about 50% of its 2,000MW electricity requirement.
This shortfall results in frequent power outages, primarily due to the declining capacity of its outdated power facilities.
The Hwange plant is Zimbabwe's largest, with a capacity of 1,520MW, and underwent an upgrade in 2023 with the commissioning of two units, adding 600MW.
However, its older units, constructed in the 1980s, are currently functioning at only one-third of their capacity due to frequent breakdowns.
Another power plant, the Kariba hydropower station, originally built in the 1960s, underwent an upgrade in 2018, boosting its capacity by 300MW to a total of 1,050MW.
However, its generation capacity has been impacted by drought in recent years.
Last year in December, JSP Green Wind 1, a subsidiary of Jindal Renewables and Suzlon expanded its partnership with a 302.4MW wind power project in Karnataka’s Koppal region in India.
