Hwange Thermal Power Station
Hwange Thermal Power Station is Zimbabwe’s largest power plant, located near Hwange and owned by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA). It has a total capacity of 1,520 MW, built in eight units: four of 120 MW, two of 220 MW, and two of 300 MW.
Construction began in 1973 but was halted in 1975 due to sanctions on Rhodesia. Stage 1 units were commissioned between 1983 and 1986, and Stage 2 units followed in 1986–1987. The plant was designed by Merz & McLellan.
Water for the boilers and cooling comes from the Zambezi River through a 44-kilometre pipeline to a nearby storage reservoir, then by gravity to the plant. It uses about 107,000 cubic metres of raw water per day, and has a demineralisation plant with a capacity of 5,420 cubic metres per day.
Coal is supplied from the nearby Wankie open-pit mine via a 3.5-kilometre conveyor belt. About 1,750 tonnes of coal are delivered per hour, with around 250,000 tonnes stored on site. The mine area is believed to contain enough coal to support about 1,200 MW for roughly 30 years.
The plant has faced maintenance and upgrade challenges, leading to frequent outages. In 2009 Namibia’s NamPower agreed to help revive capacity in exchange for power deliveries. In 2008 Chadha Power of India won a contract to refurbish four units. In 2015 China agreed to provide a US$1.2 billion loan to add 600 MW by building two more units.
An upgrade to add Units 7 and 8 (each 300 MW) progressed in 2021, with a contract price around US$1.5 billion. By March 2022 progress was about 82%, and by August 2023 Units 7 and 8 were in operation.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:07 (CET).