Now you can save power

it last longer.
Unlike in the past when appliances not in use would be left plugged on wall sockets, most consumers are likely to drop their bad habits to avoid self-made black outs.
Zesa Holdings last week officially rolled out the pre-paid meter programme that is expected to give total control over consumption to its customers and boost the utility’s finances. The power utility recently completed its pilot project that saw over 4 000 meters being installed at households in Harare and Bulawayo. Solhart ZTE, Finmark and Nyamazela of South Africa were contracted to deliver the meters. There are  600 000 registered properties in the Zesa database.
Zesa technicians have been working round the clock installing the new meters in the first selected residential areas. Residents who have had the meters installed say they have already started dropping some bad habits and save electricity.
“The era of saving electricity has finally come? I live in the Avenues area and had the prepaid meter installed last Friday.
“I now make sure that all lights that are not in use are switched off. We now even have candlelight dinners or use the television light, only switch on the geyser a few hours before we use it. I have changed the way I used to do things and am saving a little bit,” said Mrs Mary Musanhu. 
Another resident, Mrs Jane Chipere of Marlborough, said the prepaid meters are a good idea, but it is important for Zesa to educate consumers on how the pay points will work.
Zesa also needs to decentralise the top-up purchase points to supermarkets in certain residential areas, she suggested.
“I used to live in Namibia where I used a similar prepaid system. We would buy electricity from Spar supermarket in Komasdal and would not panic if electricity ran out on a Sunday. We would just walk to the supermarket, a few blocks away from where we lived. This was a convenient method I think Zesa should adopt.
“There is no room for fraud as it is the same system used by Econet to sell airtime in supermarkets,” she proposed.
Added Mrs Chipere: “Knowing my fellow Zimbabweans, people will soon be complaining that they are being shortchanged if they fail to save electricity.
“I also urge consumers especially tenants in high- density suburbs to be careful of overinflated prices because third parties that include landlords can add a mark-up on the unit cost to make a profit. Many landlords are likely to abuse this system and get huge profits. Zesa should educate the people on how much one house with four different people living there should expect to pay.”
A consumer who only identified himself as Emmanuel said while he welcomes the introduction of prepaid electricity meters, he does not foresee much change on the ground in terms of reduction of bills.
“What Zesa will simply do is increase tariffs such that consumers will still pay a similar amount of money like the one they are currently paying.
“The advantage to them is that they will pay in advance this time around, hence their confidence that this will boost their cash inflows,” he said.
Another consumer said while Zesa has kicked off the installation of prepaid meters they should also consider that there are other areas without electricity due to shortage of transformers.
“They should also buy more transformers and also install electricity lines in those areas without electricity for all the Zimbabweans to benefit from the newly adopted programme of prepaid meters,” he said.
Zesa spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira said they have installed 90 000 metres so far and have started with customers requiring new connections, those with faulty meters and bulk users.
“Most flats in the Avenues area with up to 50 households were still using bulk electricity meters and residents would receive one bill, a disadvantage to those who did not use much electricity,” he said.
He said their aim is to install prepaid meters for all domestic consumers in 10 months and then move to big users.
He added that after the first phase (installation of main house) only property owners with cottages that are approved by council can also start applying for the prepaid meters.
This, he said, would bring transparency as the tenant’s and landlords billing system will be separate.
Mr Gwasira added that those with tenants living within the main house will have to do with the one prepaid meter for now.
He revealed that during the prepaid meter installation exercise, they have detected a number of anomalies that include households with faulty and some with illegal connections.
“We have identified those who had faulty connections and some with illegal connections. We will uproot and prosecute those with illegal connections this is why we want to urge customers to do right things,” he added. 
Mr Gwasira said for now, customers can only top up their electricity from Zesa billing offices as the project is still in its infancy. 
“We have made a lot of progress towards enlisting third parties that include supermarkets, filling stations, and street vendors among many others. We have already engaged 15 vendors and will rope in more. We are also working on technology to enable the vendors to sell the prepaid top-up cards without hitches,” added Mr Gwasira.
He revealed that the system is watertight and there is no room for fraud.
“We will use the same technology as the one used by mobile phone operators for airtime in supermarkets,” he said. 
Mr Gwasira hinted that they are going further than juice cards, and will have products that allow people to top up electricity using their mobile phones.
People can also buy the prepaid juice cards through their bank accounts once the measures have been put in place.
“The good thing is that if you lose a juice card, no one can use it as it will meter specific after buying it,” he said.
The important thing, according to Mr Gwasira, is that the prepaid meter research done in several countries show a decrease of up to 20 percent in electricity use.
“This system talks directly to consumer pockets. Rather than continue use electricity even when not required, people will start switching off what they do not need.
People would leave lights, geysers, cellphones on wall sockets, decorders on among many others.
“But now, load shedding will decrease,” he pointed out.
He emphasised that there is no direct relation between prepaid meter system and load-shedding.
“Load-shedding is a direct functional supply and demand. Whenever demand exceeds supply we then have to shed load to maintain the equilibrium. If customs are saving power it will mean that saving goes to someone else who might not have had electricity,” he said.
Mr Gwasira said consumers should also check appliances’ energy rating when buying. 
“It is important for consumers to know the amount of energy the appliance they want to buy requires so that they do not end up buying, for example, an iron that chews up a lot of electricity,” he said.  
While switching off electrical appliances not in use is also important, there is need for consumers to understand amounts of electricity taken up by each.
Many people strongly believe that when they turn off an electrical appliance it does not use any power. According to gogreeninyourhome.com, most electrical devices in homes still use electricity while turned off.
Some appliances never actually turn off; they still consume power in standby power mode. “Some electrical appliances in homes are in a standby power mode, but still consume power because of the way their power supplies are built. This is called vampire energy, phantom energy, electricity leak, or leaking electricity,” says the journal.
The journal explains that any electrical device that has an external power supply connected to it will still use electricity while powered off. These are cellphone chargers, computer speakers and any of those electrical devices with a cubed power supply on it. Also any electrical appliances that have a clock, LED, light, or LCD panel on it will also use electricity while turned off.
These include microwaves, coffee makers, TVs, VCRs, DVD players, etc. “Any devices that have a standby or sleep power modes will still consume electricity.
“Most TVs and set top cable boxes never actually turn off; they just go into a standby mode. Computer monitors and computers are the same. Most computers will still keep power to the mother board for different functions such as ethernet cards/network cards, modems, USB hubs, etc,” adds the journal.
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