Zimbabwe faces serious power cuts going into 2024 after the Zimbabwe River Authority (ZRA) reduced water allocation for electricity generation at Kariba Dam due to reduced rainfall.
ZRA recently reduced the amount of water allotted for power generation at the Kariba Dam by 47% to 16 billion cubic metres (BCM) from 30 BCM due to a water crisis, which is expected to exacerbate Zimbabwe’s ongoing power crisis.
ZRA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Munyaradzi Munodawafa, confirmed the development.
“ZRA hereby announces that it has allocated 16 BCM of water to be shared equally between the two power utilities (ZESCO and ZPC) for their power generation operations at Kariba for the year 2024,” Munodawafa said.
He said the 2024 water allocation was informed by the 2023/ 2024 rainfall forecasts made by the Southern Africa Climate Outlook Forum-27 and the corresponding downscaled projections by the National Metrological Agencies of Zambia and Zimbabwe, which all showed a high probability of a normal to below normal 2023/ 2024 rainfall season for the Kariba Lower Catchment and normal to above normal.
“The 2024 water allocation was informed by the 2023/2024 rainfall forecasts made by the Southern Africa Climate Outlook Forum-27 and the corresponding downscaled projections by the National Metrological Agencies of Zambia and Zimbabwe, which all showed a high probability of a normal to below normal 2023/2024 rainfall season for the Kariba Lower Catchment and normal to above normal rainfall season for the Kariba Upper Catchment.
“This general outlook is highly influenced by the increasing occurrence of El Niño weather conditions, which are expected to significantly negatively impact the rainfall season in southern Africa.
“Hydrological simulations carried out by the authority using the Kariba Inflow Forecasting System that is based on satellite rainfall measurements and numerical weather forecasts, providing short-term and seasonal flow forecasts, considered the high likelihood of a below-average rainfall season which, in turn, will likely result in below average inflows into Lake Kariba thereby negatively impacting the volume of water available for power generation during the year 2024.
“Accordingly, power utilities have been advised to consider alternative sources of power to complement generation at Kariba in order to fill any power generation deficit that could arise due to the lower water allocation at Kariba for the year 2024.”
Zwnews
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