REA to electrify 783 institutions

Last year, the agency electrified 332 institutions to the tune of $12 million.
“The Rural Electrification Agency has targeted 783 institutions for electrification in the 2012 roll out plan at an estimated cost of $37 million.
“In the programme, Rea will construct about 481 kilometres of 33 kiloVolts (kV) and slightly above 1 000 kilometres of 11 kV distribution lines as well as 780 kilometres of medium voltage lines. This is over and above customer initiated projects lined up for electrification as well,” said Rea public relations and marketing executive Mr Johannes Nyamayedenga.
He said in 2011 the electrification agency had targeted to extend the electricity lines to 558 public institutions countrywide at a cost of $21 million.
Last year, Rea also spent about $2,6 million to install 132 solar mini grid solar systems at public institutions. The rest was tied up in material tendered through the State Procurement Board.
Mini grid solar systems complement the grid (main electricity line). Mini grid solar systems are installed in areas far away from the existing grid network, which are unlikely to benefit from electricity in the foreseeable future.
“The agency could have done all the institutions last year as planned but failed owing to a combination of factors.
“One major drawback was the issue of under-performing suppliers who won the tender but failed to deliver the materials on time. Some even ended up cancelling the orders after failing to supply the materials forcing Rea to start all over again,” he said.
“The other issue is the tendering procedure. In the formal tender where we can procure bulk materials at once, the turnaround time is very long. The winner of the tender may also take close to half a year before delivering the materials.”
He said in the case of an informal tender, Rea procures limited materials which do not exceed $50 000 per item.
“The state of affairs has negatively affected the agency in executing its mandate timeously and to the expectations of our customers,” he said.
In the 2012 national budget, Finance Minister Tendai Biti allocated $7 million to Rea to boost its operations.
“We are very excited about the fiscus funding from Government. It will go a long way in assisting us to extend the grid (electricity lines) and provide other forms of energy to the rural communities but falls short of meeting our needs given the number of public institutions and villages that require energy in the country.
“About 70 percent of the population of Zimbabwe lives in rural areas and it is the wish of every villager to have his or her home electrified,” said Mr Nyamayedenga.
On customer driven projects where villagers contributed 40 percent of the project cost, he said the agency has a backlog that requires $75 million to complete.
For public institutions such as schools, clinics and Government offices an estimated cost of $400 million is required and these are 100 percent funded by Rea resulting in more money being required to provide total energy to rural Zimbabwe.
Rea was formed through an Act of Parliament in 2002.
Since its formation the agency has managed to electrify 6 588 public and customer driven projects in the rural areas as at 31 December 2011.
The electrification of public institutions has improved learning conditions in schools. Pupils in rural schools now have access to computers and they can study in the evenings just like their counterparts in urban areas.
“As for rural health centres, a remarkable progress has been achieved in the health delivery system. Nurses and other health workers particularly midwives used to work under difficult conditions using paraffin lamps to attend to expecting mothers but now things have changed for the better. This has also improved preservation and quality of medication through the use of refrigerators,” he said.
Mr Nyamayedenga said his organisation remained committed to fulfilling its mandate of rapid and equitable provision of energy to all rural areas in the country through the grid and other renewable energy technologies.