Zesa installs 200 000 pre-paid meters

At least 200 000 pre-paid electricity meters were installed this year, bringing the total so far to over 500 000 with the process going on smoothly, a senior Government official has said. Zesa Holdings, which previously billed its customers after usage of services, started introducing pre-paid electricity meters for its domestic consumers two years ago. Energy and Power Development permanent secretary Patson Mbiriri said at least 522 000 pre-paid meters had been installed since the programme started.

“This year we put in 200 000 pre-paid meters, it is not a mean task to put in that many,” he said.

“Zim-Asset has given us a target of 800 000 and we are well on the way to meeting that target.”

Mr Mbiriri said the Government was forging ahead with plans to install smart meters despite challenges encountered in the tendering process.

He said ideally, the Government wanted four or five contractors to install the smart meters.

“The next phase will be installation of smart meters. Don’t believe everything you read in the media about tenders being mismanaged. Those tenders are being properly managed. We do not want one person to install the 300 000 (smart meters). We want four or five contractors to install them,” he said.

Zesa Holdings is planning to extend the smart meters to industries and other sectors of the economy to mobilise resources for the expansion of Kariba South Power Station and the additional two units at Hwange Thermal Power Station.

Zimbabwe is facing a power deficit, and the Government has identified this as one of the top priority areas in its bid to resuscitate the economy.

The Government, through the Zimbabwe Power Company, has embarked on several projects to bridge the power deficit including expanding existing generating plants and building new ones.

Work has started to expand Kariba South Power station to the tune of $533 million to be undertaken over the next three years.

The project, which Chinese firm Sino Hydro is undertaking, will expand the country’s second largest power station by an additional two units to add a combined 300 megawatts to the national grid.

Plans are also in place to add two units at Hwange Thermal Power Station which would have a combined generation capacity of 600 megawatts.

Zimbabwe is also working with the Zambian government to build the Batoka gorge power station which is expected to generate 1 600MW of electricity to be shared equally by the two countries when complete.

In addition to Government efforts, several independent power producers have been licensed with the projects at different stages of implementation. — New Ziana.