The ManicaPost
Takudzwa Manzero
Business Correspondent
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) has urged individuals and businesses to adopt energy-efficient practices to conserve power.
In an interview with Post Business during a Net Metering and Energy Efficiency Workshop held in Mutare recently, ZERA chief executive officer Mr Edington Mazambani said a survey carried out by the Authority revealed that efficient ways of using energy could save electricity considerably.
“As Zera, we have a programme focusing on energy regulation. Then we have a sub programme of net metering and energy regulation.
“Under net metering, we have rooftop solar, which is grid tied. During the day when you produce more, you can feed the excess into the national grid. At night when you produce less you can then draw power from the grid.
“At the beginning of the year, our rooftop solar was producing between 10 and 12 megawatts of power and now we are thinking of increasing that to between 15 and 20 megawatts.
In terms of energy efficiency, he said there is need for behaviour change.
“Our studies from 2016 revealed that Zimbabwe was not using energy efficiently. By changing our usage so that it becomes more efficient, we could harness power.
“It’s just a matter of using electricity wisely, including turning off the lights when you leave the room and reducing the use of air cons. If you are walk around town tonight, you will see that most office lights will be lit up, and yet the people would have gone for the day. We can save power for other uses,” said Mr Mazambani.
“In industry, we need to move away from hard starting machinery and move to soft starting ones,“ he said.
Meanwhile, Zera has banned the sale of 48 kilogram LPG gas cylinders from at least 12 brands, including Reatile Wasaa, Tswana, Easigas, Totalgaz, Mendon, Oryx, Eiendon, ORT, Kasa, Avedia, ELF Gas and BP.
Mr Mazambani revealed that the move was made for safety reasons as owners of the gas cylinders are not licensed to operate in Zimbabwe and as such, their cylinders have no maintenance support in the country.
“We gave notice to the manufacturers on the 1st of July last year to give companies enough time to transition to a transparent system where sellers using gas canisters should have equipment from their franchise as it will be easy to track where the someone obtained the tank in the event of an accident.
“In the capital we recorded the death of an entire family after a gas leak. One death is too many, so we are elevating our standards so as to protect the community,” said Mr Mazambani. Speaking at the same event, the Standards Association of Zimbabwe standards officer, Mr Phillip Chindara said people need to know about reliable electrical appliance certification.
“It is necessary to understand these sections of the law to protect your machinery from counterfeit products,” said Mr Chindara.
