Can Zimbabwe and Zambia reach their 2030 power targets? Deputy Minister Yeukai Simbanegavi says they can
Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Energy and Power Development, Yeukai Simbanegavi, told reporters at the Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit in Livingstone that both countries can reach their generation targets, and that the government will take what investors raised at the summit and come back with changes.
Zambia is aiming for 10,000MW of generating capacity by 2030 and Zimbabwe for 6,000MW, and when reporters at the Zimbabwe-Zambia Energy Projects Summit in Livingstone asked Yeukai Simbanegavi whether the gap between the two targets was a problem, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Energy and Power Development told them it was not really. “It all comes down to planning and implementation and just setting realistic goals,” she said, adding that Zambia has the capacity to reach its target and that Zimbabwe could go beyond 6,000MW. “The idea is just to plan and focus and commit ourselves to achieving what we are planning.”
Both governments now accept that they must add to the coal they have long relied on and bring more wind and solar into the mix, she said, describing the summit as a chance for two countries with a shared history and shared resources across their border to review what they have achieved together and plan the next steps.
Now that the summit has closed, the government will sit down with the problems that investors and others outside government raised in the sessions, whether on policy and regulation or on currency and tariffs, then make adjustments and come back to show them the progress it has made, she said, describing the summit as a platform where those outside government can point out what they find in Zimbabwe’s systems when they want to invest.
Transmission came up after a session on the cross-border grid, and while she acknowledged that issues will arise on a line being built between countries, including how it is financed, she said governments can pool their resources and utilities can work together to see it through. “It has already started, and a lot of progress has happened,” she said.
