In between the politicking of 2013 one of the sad facts that has somehow not garnered the attention it rightly deserves is the fact that Zimbabwe is facing a serious energy crisis. Aside from the fact that people and businesses have been, throughout this entire year, plunged into darkness at the most inconvenient of times, businesses have had to make do with power generators and other power alternatives that have come at a steep cost. 2013 has been a year of darkness and in my opinion not enough is being done at the moment to ensure 2014 will be any different.
All ICT equipment from the humble smartphone to complex data centres, from your home router to complex network boosters require and rely on a steady and reliable power supply. Erratic power shortages have severely impacted on the ability of local players to compete on the international market. Why would someone in America for example invest in an overpriced data centre in Zimbabwe when they can invest pretty much anywhere in the world. The competitive edge of local internet companies is not helped by high bandwidth charges that local players have had to negotiate with either.
Enough with the surprises already.
It has since emerged that Zimbabwe’s demand for electricity is around 2 200MW whilst our generating capacity today is 1 167MW ( Hwange 475MW, Kariba 625MW, Harare 20MW, Munyati 27MW, Bulawayo 20MW and Imports 0) leaving a deficit of 1 033MW. In other words only about half our electricity needs are being met. In a bid to cover this shortfall we have been subjected to ruthless load shedding schedules that have eaten into our already thin profit margins.
It is not as if this situation developed over night as some members of our current government who are expressing surprise would like us to believe. For a while now Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution and Transmission Company, the ZESA subsidiary in charge of supplying electricity has been adding more and more customers to the grid whilst the Zimbabwe Power Company has been apparently sitting on its laurels. Programs like the rural electrification program did nothing to increase supply when they were busy adding new consumers. As a result demand for electricity has increased whilst supply has decreased because of lack of proper maintenance of our generating equipment.
This has been obviously going on for a while yet some ministers- a lot of whom have been in office for decades- had the audacity to feign surprise that such a situation has developed. To make matters worse we have seen it fit to continually reduce the power utility’s revenue base by engaging in policies such as slashing ZESA bills for consumers without commensurate deposits from the Consolidated Fund to cover the debt. The total amount of the cancelled debt was close to $170 million which would have been sufficient to import electricity to cover most if not all our excess demand. The ZIM ASSET document, which is being used as a blueprint by the current government, also includes non-committal statements such as “increased access to electricity” without giving a timetable as to when this should be achieved.
The solutions are obvious.
- The government must import electricity to at least partially cover the deficit as they embark on its Power Generation expansion schemes. It is mind boggling that despite this massive shortage we are not importing electricity at all. Someone at ZESA should be spending sleepless nights looking for suppliers and solutions. Load shedding is a mitigating measure not a solution.
- Both the 300MW expansion scheme at Kariba and the Batoka Hydroelectric scheme must be expedited. The later is expected to begin next year but at the pace at which things are going don’t be surprised if it will only begin a decade from now. The project was first first conceived in 1972 and yet 40 years later it is still talk.
- The government must allow private companies to feed into the grid in exchange for payment. Power generating licenses must be given to other private players because clearly the government has failed to keep up with demand.
- There should be better coordination between ZESA subsidiaries. ZPC excutives must inform their ZEDTC counterparts whenever there is a problem with anyone of their generators so the later can make the necessary arrangements to import additional power.
- ZPC should conduct their annual repairs on generators in phases rather than at once. Who sends all their cars to the garage at the same time?
By any measure it looks like 2014 will be a dark year. If you are a business with resources you should consider investing in a micro hydro-electricity scheme of your own. If you are a small company then it is high time you considered other energy sources such as Solar and Wind because it is likely the woes at ZESA will continue in the foreseeable future. None of ZESA’s planned short term projects will cover the deficit.
2013 was a year of darkness.2014 will in all likelihood be another year of darkness so take heed.
Picture by Bulawayo24.
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15 comments
zvinorwadza kuona nyika dzine magetsi akawanda dzichi wedzera capacity, asi isu tisina hatina zvatiri kuita. ma power plant atinawo akavakwa nguva yana smith, 40yrs ago.
hurumende yedu haifungi ramangwana
Mr Garikai Dzoma, I unfortunately think you did very little research on this article. I am a ZESA Holdings employee and I can tell you one thing, despite being right that as a country we are facing yet another year of darkness, you have a lot of missing facts about why the situation is as it is. Our Power Generation facilities are decades old, (Munyati 1930s) and Munyati isnt generating 27 MW, its actually 19MW. There actually is no point in refurbishing these power stations, instead new ones need to be built. Zimbabwe currently wills Namibia power generated at Hwange Power Station (150MW) This is because of a deal conducted during the zim dollar era between the two governments for an undisclosed amount of forex.
“There should be better coordination between ZESA subsidiaries. ZPC excutives must inform their ZEDTC counterparts whenever there is a problem with anyone of their generators so the later can make the necessary arrangements to import additional power.”
Do you Honestly (in your right mind) think that when ZPC faces a generation failure, ZETDC doesnt know about it immediately? Despite ZESA’s failure to produce adequate power for the nation, it has state of the art telecommunication technology for protection systems that are monitored 24/7. There is what we call Power Network Control. This is a specialised “I.T” department that sees to it that all RTUs (Remote Terminal Units) are visible on the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system. Its more or less what you might call the GUI for the system controller.
“ZPC should conduct their annual repairs on generators in phases rather than at once. Who sends all their cars to the garage at the same time”
They dont conduct repairs all at once. That’s an absurd notion!
“Both the 300MW expansion scheme at Kariba and the Batoka Hydroelectric scheme must be expedited. The later is expected to begin next year but at the pace at which things are going don’t be surprised if it will only begin a decade from now. The project was first first conceived in 1972 and yet 40 years later it is still talk.”
Batoka project was and had only been up to last year been stalled by Zambia. The reason for this being, Zimbabwe owed Zambia money for the Kariba south hydro power station. The reason why we had a debt was that in 1965 when Unilateral Declaration of Independence (commonly referred to as UDI) was adopted by the Cabinet of Rhodesia, Ian Smith refused to pay Britain the debt for building Kariba under what was then CAPCO (Central African Power Corporation ) which you would refer to as “Transmission” in the ZETDC company hence Zambia through its own resources paid of that debt. Zimbabwe at independence inherited this debt and our government at the time did not pay Zambia hence Batoka was a plan left hanging
http://allafrica.com/stories/201209121157.html
There is a lot more to say but for now I think you should have a fair appreciation of the situation.
Thank you for the illuminating comment. I am however compelled to dismiss most of the excuses you have given.
For example saying “the equipment is very old” is not a good excuse at all. Machinery does not become obsolete overnight. All machinery eventually becomes obsolete it is ZESA’s duty to progressively replace it. This is the same excuse that is given by air Zimbabwe ” our planes our old! our planes are old!” There are many state airlines in the world just as there are many state owned power utilities and they all seem to get by just fine without offering the same lame excuses.
Most power deals involve bilateral and sometimes multi-lateral agreements even in other countries so blaming Zambia for stalling a project is simplistic and implies the parties involved are not up to the task of. And all that stuff about the UDI and Britain is just political grand standing. Let me ask you: if one of your debtors fails to pay you the money that you intended to use to buy food what would you do? Wait for him to pay up while you starve or look for another source of money to buy food while you continue to press the debtor to pay up?
I also distinctly remember that one of the reasons that came up during load shed a few months ago was because of scheduled maintenance. A majority of the generators where not working because something was up at Hwange yet the power utility went ahead with maintenance work at Kariba because they were “statutory.” Someone at ZPC seemed to(as I recall) imply ZEDTC was to blame for not finding alternative sources of power. The impression was that there was some sort of communication breakdown.
Whatever way you look at it either I am ignorant of the facts in which case ZESA is to blame for not informing the public of what is going on behind the scenes. There are things called Twitter and Facebook. ZESA’s Facebook page is just plain pathetic. Or I am right in which ZESA is to blame for incompetence. Or more likely both statements are true: ZESA does not communicate well with customers and they are incompetent.
Garikai I would like to continue this conversation on a more private platform, if you don’t mind? There are some things that are difficult to say over open platforms such as this.
Cool just PM me in FB and i will give me my private email.
Assuming the money exists, it is availed & properly allocated, management is competent & independent and debts ate paid.
Otherwise its just shouting into the wind.
Are excuses the way forward? Why still MORE and MORE FREQUENT LOAD SHEDDING?! Rubbish talk from
people earning a salary, that if it were performance-based, that salary
would be a big fat ZERO salary!! All you are providing are stories, something you tell children at bedtime! Are you saying that from 1930 to 2013 you have built nothing? so therefore its not your fault coz you couldn’t plan ahead? So you had a debt in 1965 and a FULL FORTY EIGHT (48) years later its still not your fault??!!!! shame chum. very lame !!!
Have you ever worked for a government owned company? The owner decIdes what is bought and when. As for our salaries, well join zesa if you want to earn like us. Don’t expect our employer to underpay us because the rest of zim is underpayed. Regionally as a power utility we earn the least so I’d say given that we aren’t at full capacity it’s expected.
you my friend are a misguided self centered element, who needs to be fired from this national entity because you have your interests at heart.
Working in the private sector like some of us, our salaries are very much based on company performance.
How can you defend yourself when you work for a pathetic organisation, which has failed dismally? I would say one should be proud of the work they do… but it seems you are the exact opposite.
I wonder how far our country will go if it is manned by unfocused people like you.
As the young people we should aim to get rid of this mentality.. and work hard for the good of the country
The issue is not about his salary but about ZESA failure to provide power for Zimbabwe. It is not Brad’s fault that ZESA failed to build more stations or pay off debt. He is just an employee. I do not see anything wrong with his response to GD’s article. if he can give us more insight into ZESA’s woes the better. What he earns is none of my business. He works there let him explain what he knows to us who do not know.
Hey Brad, since you seem like you know a lot about this stuff, I just want to ask , how feasible is solar (as in utillity scale solar power stations) as an alternative?
When I was doing my Internship (2007), the small company (IT, Strathaven) that I worked for would operate for an average of 3hrs a day using a generator.
I did some bit of research into Zesa’s ability to generate power and the results scared me. The equipment they use is very old, they cannot expect to continue ‘refurbishing’ that equipment.
Instead of building power plants, I watched as we pursued Jatropha and ‘Dhiziri kuChinhoyi’ projects.
Looking into the future, there is no solution in sight. I am talking about the next 20years at least.
I dont care how we got here, all I want is for someone to announce that ‘construction has begun on a major power plant to produce more than our consumption needs’. Once that announcement is made, I will pack my bags and come home.
I remember when power cuts started, there would be a huge roar whenever electricity came back. Everyone would be excited: they could now iron, watch john cena, watch arsenal, see each other, freeze their meat, chill their beers etc. Now, people have given up. Its the norm. There is nothing they can do. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Watch John Cena , hahaha
My friend, that figure of 2200 MW demand has been circling for the past 5 to 6 years if not more. Real demand as of today is probably easily another 20-30% on top of that, just to keep households and business running. So if they meet the demand of 2200MW in 2 to 3 years time there will obviously still be load shedding unless millions more people have left and/or thousands more businesses have shut down. Not only is the equipment old, so is the thinking! Tired equipment and even more tired ideas. Why use and abuse something until it breaks? in SA a major generator can be refurbished and back online in +/- 2-3 weeks. This we know from factual news from across the border. Facts don’t lie, people do! Time for talking has to be up for these ZESA guys. First it was energy savers, how many consumers actually benefited from this scheme? then it was prepaid meters, how many consumers now have these installed? against what target? Then it was disconnection for those that hadn’t paid up, wheres the extra capacity now from that exercise? Why still MORE and MORE FREQUENT LOAD SHEDDING?! Rubbish talk from people earning a salary, that if it were performance-based, that salary would be a big fat ZERO salary!!
Partlt the problem not mentioned is over-staffing. Hope the current Presidential Comission which asked for all salaries of parastatal employees make their findings public. With advancement of technology and all IT wizards here, can’t bill payment be automated.. this should see the closure of many branches and cutting off staff… All high energy users such as Sable Chemicals, Zimplats, and big mines which I had consume upto 40% of our electricity can be just removed from the national grid and connected directly to the DRC or Mozambique that have the excess power… what do others think?