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Harare requires exports of concentrate to stop on 1 January and has made written commitments on plant timelines a condition of trading until then. Two facilities are still under construction. Producers have asked for the date to move, and the answer will decide who is exporting in February.

Installed capacity now stands at 4,576MW, of which 841MW is solar, and Kariba’s usable storage has roughly doubled in a year. Almost all of the additional units drawn last year went to the mines, and Open Access is now the mechanism deciding who is served first.

The national compact signed under Mission 300 commits Harare to reaching every household by 2030, and sets out how far the utility must move to do it. Private distribution and retail licences were due in the first quarter of this year, opening a market ZETDC has held alone.

Green Hybrid Power, a vehicle established by Zimbabwe’s Intensive Energy Users Group, has taken preparatory work as far as a US$4.4 million Afreximbank facility allows. Energy minister July Moyo has said he hopes to close the financing by October, with panels floating on the reservoir alongside the hydro station rather than replacing it.

The Zambezi River Authority held a market sounding session for the 2,400MW scheme at the Africa Energy Forum in June, described as preparation for the formal procurement process. Zambia and Zimbabwe have each committed $220 million from their 2026 budgets, and a second Zambezi scheme is now in prefeasibility behind it.

Five contractors have twelve months to build a 2MW installation with 4MWh of storage in each of 156 constituencies, at a stated ZMW 4.3bn. Permanent Secretary Nicholas Phiri has described the ownership stake as a revenue stream for the local authorities hosting them.

Ever Great Energy is developing the plant with majority partner Wonderful Group Services, and the Singapore contractor Ziquan Group holds the turnkey construction scope. A second phase would take capacity to 600MW within five years of the first being completed. ZCCM-IH says it is engaging with the relevant authorities.

The lake stood at 482.15m in late June, holding 48 per cent of usable storage against 23 per cent a year earlier. The Zambezi River Authority has revised this year’s water for power upward to 36 billion cubic metres, shared equally between ZESCO and the Zimbabwe Power Company.