Power company, ZESA, issues notice & schedule of severe load shedding

L.S.M Kabweza Avatar

generator-jerry-canIf your June, like ours, has started with frustrating long hours of unexplained power outages every day, consider this the explanation. It won’t unfortunately provide any relief to this madness, but at least you know what’s going on and can take action. Hint – maybe relocate that startup office from the bedroom. Whatever action you take, fact is winter is here and the much expected severe load shedding (we have moderate load shedding all year round) has begun.

ZESA, the national power company charged with ensuring the country has enough power, isn’t doing it. They have been issuing notices detailing the schedule of load shedding that users of power will be subjected to for the next 2 months. Reads the notice:

Zimbabwe’s seasonal peak power demand occurs during the winter months of June and July when maximum demand rises to an average of 1800MW. To this end, ZESA  has put in place measures to boost power generation and reduce consumption in order to minimise load shedding. in spite of the measures, power supply shortfalls will still be experienced. Accordingly, load shedding will be carried out in accordance with the follow schedules.

The load shedding will be most severe in residential suburbs where homes will go for at least 8 hours of no power everyday. According to ZESA, the company’s power generation stations currently produce about 1,200MW which means we have a deficit of 600MW. The load shedding however will not be so severe on referral hospitals, water & sewer installations, security establishments, airports and broadcasting stations as well as the CBD.

We’d refer you to the ZESA website for the detailed load shedding schedule, but the latest data they have is from 2012, so I guess you just have to go buy the paper, or maybe call them. If anyone reading this has a pdf with the tables, please provide a link to it or send us by email.

You can download the pdf here, thanks to @Raymond Swart.

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19 comments

  1. arthur

    what happened to the low energy light bulbs campaign, low hanging fruit right there!!

    1. Raymond Swart

      I also feel a solar campaign with feed-in tariffs should be prioritised.

      1. Almond

        I totally agree with you raymond let me know if you have good solutions i want to set this up at home as soon as possible.

      2. Itai Hillary Zimwara

        Feed-In-Tariff schemes are normally backed by the utility (private or government owned) as they pay for energy produced by the solar on your rooftop. At the moment they have to raise finance for the current expansion projects leaving no room for FITs.

        It may take a long time now but patriotic citizens like you would invest in energy saving technologies like solar water heating reducing pressure on the grid.

    2. Itai Hillary Zimwara

      It was a fairly succesful project but not enough to close the existing and growing demand gap.

      1. Alu

        It totally missed me – coz I didn’t get a single one from ZESA – never even saw them there whenever I went to pay bills.

  2. Raymond Swart

    Has anything come of the article you published regarding the ZESA app and how it can be used to curb excesive power usage?

  3. Anonymous

    Things fall apart for real; at least 8 hours everyday!

  4. Anonymous

    Zesa is one baffling character. these guys buy electricity which they sell at a profit—for crying out loud WHAT IS THEIR PROBLEM????? Buy MORE electricity and make more money!!!!!! Where is the problem?

    1. Farai

      1. Do they have the money to buy more power?
      2. If they buy more power it would be at borrowed money with interest which means you and me pay more
      3. Load shedding is here for a looooooong time!

  5. The Watcher

    Can Zesa please explain the following….

    In the past Zesa informed us that during the winter season power usage peaked due to more electricity being used for domestic heating.

    With the majority of impoverished domestic users now on pre-paid cash power units…. how many of them can actually afford to use electrically powered heating when they are living on a shoe string budget?

    How does Zesa justify the theory of increased power usage in light of this?

    Please Zesa dont take advantage of the situation so that u can export power to other countries at our expense. We are not fools… we are intelligent logical beings!!

    1. madpple

      the watcher got a fact
      apa

  6. Popo

    Demand of electricity went up just like the bosses demand for new high end vehicles!

  7. musa

    where is the Byo time table? Zim is not Hre & Hre is not Zim.

    1. L.S.M Kabweza

      We got the Harare one from a reader. Once we get the one for the whole Zimbabwe from ZESA itself, we will publish it as well.

  8. Msasa Park resident

    l stay In Msasa Park / Chadcombe code H14. It seems Im affected by this schedule every single day without any Mercy. Nhai hupenyu here?

  9. Anonymous

    Living in Zimbabwe can be shit at times…

  10. painrude

    I more interested in the app thing the zesa guys can use for load shedding schedules , I think some of you techies should play a part , program one and give them a proposal . if I could I would and the fact that zesa tokens can only be nought through ketones mmt system is really fishy , I mean econet has 8kk users , like duh 1+1= 2

  11. Libstar

    Anyone who has been badly affected by this power issue, be happy, I have a solution for you. This is what I want you to do:
    1. Take my number 0774235976
    2. Contact me by SMS,Whatsapp,call (in that order of preference)
    I will do a site visit to assess how your house is wired (only important if there are more than 1 families at your house). After that I will quote you items required to install a power backup system and will supply and fit the equipment if we are in agreement.

    I stay in one of the high density surbubs in Harare and realised a business opportunity posed by ZESA. I started by installing myself this backup system I am talking about, and most of the time, my neighbours would ululate thinking ZESA was back when I lit my exterior lights. Yes, you heard that right, the system is integrated into my house’s electrical wiring.

    Talk to me, I dont know why you keep on crying about this ZESA thing. As with me, I dont even want it! Its even good if there is load shedding so that I can show off,LOL

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