Minister of Energy and Power Development, Zhemu Soda has urged Zimbabweans who use electricity to exploit in renewable energy resources to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign electricity which is creating electricity deficit across all sectors.
Zimbabwe is currently working on refurbishing Kariba South power expansion and Batoka George project to compliment electricity challenges which is experienced across the country.
Speaking during a workshop for energy efficiency policy in Harare today Hon Zhemu Soda urged different stakeholders to use renewable energy resources so as to reduce load shedding.
“I call upon all stakeholders (including research institutions, technical colleges, universities and equipment manufacturers and general energy consumers) in the energy sector to work towards the common goal of developing an efficient and sustainable energy
sector which will exploit the abundant natural endowment of renewable energy resources such as biomass, wind, solar and hydropower, among others, that we have in the country. I call upon both public entities and the private sector to invest in energy efficient technologies in order to reduce the country’s dependence on imported electricity and highly polluting fossil fuels,” he said.
Minister Soda challenged ZESA to expeditiously refurbish the small thermal power stations and also retool the old units at Hwange power station to ultimately improve efficiency in power generation as less coal will be used to produce electricity in the country.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is experiencing a critical power deficit attributed to an increase in the demand for energy in the country, while a limited number of new power projects in terms of numbers and capacity mega watts have been commissioned since the 1990s.
In addition the country’s critical infrastructure such as power plants and the transmission and distribution systems are relatively old and require frequent servicing.
In the recent past, power shortages have also been linked to the effects of climate change which has seen the water levels in Kariba Dam dropping down from the usual 487.6 meters to 477.88 meters. This has prompted the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) to ration water used for power generation and an average of 10 billion litres being allocated to the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) which operates the Kariba South Power Station.