This is in contradiction to the $194 million reported in the private media.The Dema power project is one of the remedial measures set in place by Government to alleviate power blackouts that hit the country late last year as a result of declining water levels at Kariba Dam.

The 200MW power plant which is being developed by Sakunda Holdings is expected to commence adding 100MW of electricity to the national grid soon.

Gloria Magombo, the ZERA chief executive Engineer confirmed the tariff in a letter to Mr Kudakwashe Tagwirei, the Sakunda Holdings founder and chief executive recently.

Eng Magombo added: “The approved tariff will only apply to the power purchase agreement between Sakunda Holdings and Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company for the supply of 100MW power.

The Dema power project will be in place while other bigger expansion project like Hwange Power Station (600MW) and Kariba south (300MW) materialise.

Sakunda will lease power generators from Aggreko, the world’s leading temporary power generation company.

The total amount of energy that be supplied from Dema each year will be 536GWh not 1 072 GWh as stated by the some media reports.

The cabinet has already endorsed the project with Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda saying he is satisfied with progress so far made on site when he conducted a monitoring tour of the site recently.

While the other bigger projects are underway, the Dema power project will be implemented and complemented by another 120MW that will come from the Mutare Peaking Power Plant.

The power plant is one of the top priority projects currently targeted under Zim-Asset and the contractor, Helcraw Electrical (Pvt) Ltd, is already on the ground.

The electricity from Dema, which is directly fed into the national grid, will also be post-paid with a 45-day payment period.