Zimbabwe’s electricity situation has not changed much. Our total power generation output is currently just over 25% of the national demand. Load shedding has been a way of life for decades in the country and those who can afford it either have backup power solutions or have switched to alternative forms of power.
In a survey done of 34 African countries, only 43% of households enjoyed an electricity supply that is available all the time or most of the time. Only 4 countries in Africa enjoy 100% availability of electricity and these are Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. As for the survey, of those 34 countries, Zimbabweans are the biggest adopter of solar for backup electricity as a percentage of the total number of households.
46% of Zimbabwean households have backup/alternative power solutions with 45% of it being solar. In contrast, only 2% of South African households use solar as a form of alternative energy and only 4% of households use backup power. 96% of South African households solely rely on the national grid for power. Zimbabwe also ranks 3rd on the list for alternative energy solutions owned by households. All households using backup power are the owners of that backup power.
42% of Zimbabwean households are relying on alternative forms of power and only 27% are relying on power from the grid. This ranks Zimbabwe 3rd on the list for households using alternative sources of power. Between 2016 and 2021, there has been a decrease in the proportion of households with electricity that is always available or mostly available to the order of -7%. This puts Zimbabwe in the bottom 5 on progress in electricity availability.
The biggest contributors to this phenomenon
Zimbabwe started facing power challenges at the advent of the millennium. These power outages kept intensifying throughout the hyperinflation era and peaked during the global economic crash of 2008. During this period, the integrity of public infrastructure deteriorated including power generation infrastructure.
Diesel and Petrol generators were the first wave of power backup solutions that were employed by Zimbabweans in the mid to late 2000s. However, their popularity quickly waned due to hyperinflation and an acute fuel crisis that gripped Zimbabwe in the late 2000s. Solar became a viable alternative. Its qualities of being low maintenance, quiet and clean are what awarded its popularity, and has been the preferred choice of alternative power since the advent of the 2010s.
So Zimbabwe had a bit of a head start compared to its neighboring countries when it came to the adoption of alternative energy. Close to a whole decade for the population to work on alternative sources of power. Such households are now close to double those that are purely relying on the national grid for power.
As for the decrease in the progress on electricity availability, it is 2-fold. On one hand, the infrastructure has massively deteriorated. Harare and Bulawayo thermal power stations had to be derated for safety reasons. This means they can no longer produce the capacity they did when they were constructed because of wear and tear. This had put more load on Hwange and Kariba power stations to meet the national demand. Hwange power station might have an impressive installed capacity of 920MW with an additional 600MW being added to it to bring its rating to 1520MW.
However, its current output is 436MW at the time of writing with the 2 additional units still not yet running. Thermal power stations demand a lot of resources to run and maintain and it’s a game of catching up that Zimbabwe is playing just to keep them running.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe was 4th on the list of African countries with the cheapest electricity rates at US$0.01/kWh as of December 2021. It’s the cheapest in SADC as well. Something that we consumers will really appreciate but comes at a cost.
Electricity being imported into Zimbabwe to meet the energy deficit is being bought at regional rates and sold to consumers locally at a loss. And so utilities are unable to earn enough revenue to reliably supply power. Not only that, it makes the energy business very undesirable for Independent Power Producers (IPPs). They have not really proliferated in Zimbabwe in the way they could have simply because the rates public utilities are charging do not make it a competitive market. So no additional players to contribute to the grid as a result.
Earlier last year, ZETDC was said to have an electricity connection deficit of 350 000 houses. It’s a growing deficit in that the rate of proliferation of new housing settlements is greater than ZETDC’s capacity to connect these homes to the grid. And even if they do, the grid already cannot meet current power demands so it’s just a deteriorating situation the more houses are connected.
Prepaid meters are also a double-edged sword for utilities. They have guaranteed revenue collection and reduced the credit they offer clients which was turning into a significant pool of bad debts. But also, those who trusted the utility’s estimates and paid were now seeing a massive drop in their electricity bill after switching to prepaid meters. This is because they only charge you for electricity consumed, which reduces with the increase in load shedding. All this to say the utility is bleeding cash from every angle and thus the capacity to quickly turn around the supply side of things is highly unlikely.
The public utility is no longer the main power provider
Zimbabwe is at a very interesting place. Electricity supply has been unreliable for such a long time that alternative sources of power are now acting as the primary and preferred source of power. Energy independence is what solar is providing for 45% of households in Zimbabwe.
It may have very high setup costs but after that is basically free energy for the life of that solar system which is predominantly dictated by the usable life of the batteries. What has also contributed to the solar revolution is that ZIMRA stopped applying duty on PV cells (Solar Panels) and inverters and only a 20% duty on batteries.
Our taste of energy independence is something that works to the utility’s detriment. A majority of households that are purchasing off-grid solar systems are households that can afford to pay for electricity but cannot afford the erratic availability of this electricity.
In essence, these are a public utility’s most valuable clients. The remaining clients solely relying on the grid for power are mostly households that cannot afford solar systems. Households that might not be able to consistently pay their electricity bill or wade an increase in electricity tariffs to the regional average, something that utilities stand to gain from.
Senior government sources said a local company (name supplied) has been contracted to install a 5 kilovolt (Kva) solar system at a cost of US$ 14 000 each for top chefs who include ministers, senior government officials, commissioners and army generals.
The Standard
The above quote shows the level of hope we can have of Zimbabwe meeting its power demand. We have a really long way to go. And if nothing is done to alleviate this, more and more households will be built with off-grid power solutions in mind. That 45% figure of households switching to solar will grow and the opportunity for utilities to earn enough revenue to turn the electricity supply situation around will be lost.
If the energy market can be a free market that allows IPPs to charge sustainable rates, there will be a decent portion of Zimbabwean households that will gladly pay a bit more for the guarantee of 100% availability of power. But until then here is something to make you decide on which solar system to get.
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