ZIMBABWE Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) says the country loses at least 20% of supplied electricity because of obsolete equipment and other challenges.
Zera research and energy efficiency engineer, Victor Sibanda, said the national grid connectivity and electricity access was at 62%, more than 80% in urban and 23% in rural.
Sibanda said thermal power (41.8%) is the major source of electricity followed by hydropower (34.6%), independent power producers (3.9%) and imports (19.8%).
"Twenty percent of supplied electricity is wasted through inefficiencies; that is careless use, inefficient equipment,” Sibanda said.
“So, we are importing 20% for us to support wastage.
“Because 20% of what we are supplying, we are wasting it."
Sibanda was responding to questions during the inaugral waste to energy conference organised by The Standard in Kariba last week
“In terms of the industry, they have equipment which they would have for many years as well as electric motors, which they are using,” Sibanda said.
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“The moment you blow out the electric motor, you are losing efficiency to the tune of 30%.
“So, if it was becoming 90% before it was broken, and you take it to a place where it is rewinded, probably the efficiency of that machine is going down by 30%.”
Sibanda says the country is using old systems to generate electricity.
“We are still using these old systems that are using a lot of electricity, and producing less,” he said.
“So, I think, in terms of energy, if you want to see electricity in South Africa, they are sitting on 2.2 units for energy.
“Ghana is on 0.8 units. So, it's an indicator which highlights how we are using our energy sources for economic activities.”
He emphasised the need to upgrade the country’s power generation equipment.
"So, the issue is of the equipment which we are using as individuals and as governments,” he said.
“Then, there is an issue of information.
“Where there is no information, things take time to be done ,because we are saying, the parties to transactions, when one party is not well informed, nothing will happen.
“It can be a lack of information from those who we are expecting the service from or a lack of information from where the service is intended to go to.”
Zimbabweans are enduring rolling outages lasting over 15 hours every day due to depressed power generation capacity.
As of yesterday, the country was generating 1219 megawatts against a peak demand of at least 2000MW.
Kariba was generating 215MW and Hwange 1219 while Munyati, Harare and Bulawayo were down.
