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Leonard Ncube in VICTORIA FALLS
Zesa HOLDINGS’ distribution arm, ZETDC, must embrace new technologies such as the smart grid system to ensure energy efficiency and reduce power losses.
This came out during discussions at the ongoing Third International Renewable Energy Conference and Expo underway here.
President Mnangagwa is expected in the resort city this morning to officiate at the conference.
A smart grid is an intelligent electricity network system which allows real time communication between the utility and consumers.
Consumers have control of consumption and can remotely monitor usage and switch off unnecessary appliances while the power utility will increase revenue collection through smart technologies.
ZETDC has plans to roll out 2 500 smart pre-paid meters this first quarter and a further 4 000 in the second quarter.
Participants said the power utility was losing significant energy through faults caused by people who temper with the grid as well as by-passing of meters by some notorious users.
They implored the power utility to speed up roll-out of new technology especially smart, pre-paid meters to be able to deal with vandalism of electricity infrastructure.
A commercial services manager at ZETDC, Engineer Gift Ndlovu, told the conference that the power utility loses 20 to 30 percent of electricity due to technical challenges during transmission and by-passing of meters by consumers.
He said a number of measures were being implemented to address the challenges, adding that the future of energy was now and the benefits of smart grid were self-healing as it can detect a fault on the grid.
Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda said there were low hanging fruits in the energy space that could be tapped into, in terms of project implementation and quick solutions to solve energy shortages.
He said the Government was offering access to land, tax rebates on equipment imported, project status and access to insurance and pension funds obtainable whenever some status is assigned to a project.
Minister Soda said the coming of President Mnangagwa to officiate at the conference, shows the importance of energy in Zimbabwe.
“It is going to be an honour especially for the people who have been here attending this conference that tomorrow (today) we are looking at His Excellency (President Mnangagwa) coming to Victoria Falls, especially to open the renewable energy conference.
“We are very grateful and expectant of his arrival which shows a lot of importance and seeing that renewable energy is the way to go,” said Minister Soda.
He said Zimbabwe was committed to implementing resolutions of the climate conference held in Glasgow, Scotland, last year.
Minister Soda said technology would lead to low electricity costs.
He said Zesa will soon be embarking on the reinforcement and distribution network through some funding that has been secured.
“We are mainly looking at the contribution of renewable energy in our energy mix considering what we are going through. We have a very serious deficit that has turned out very clear looking at the direction of renewables as the way to go.”
Online Reporter