An article by Rutendo Muchinguri

More and more ordinary Zimbabweans who are not lucky enough to share an electricity grid with a hospital, school or within the CBD have been finding themselves in the dark…quite literally. A short drive in Harare will show fuel queues winding around in all directions. It is quite apparent that there is a serious energy crisis in the country. Here is my short and unsolicited opinion on quick solutions to the energy crisis:

• Harare is dubbed the sunshine city for a reason. All year round, the sun is almost always shining in Harare and Zimbabwe at large. It is therefore logical that solar energy must form part of Zimbabwe’s energy mix. The development of a clear alternative energy policy plus a renewable energy tariff is very important for purposes of courting IPPs who wish to look into investing in the alternative energy sector;
• The current electricity tariff is very divorced from the actual cost of producing electricity. It is unrealistically low and ZERA must take charge and decide on giving ZPC a tariff increase. The current subsidy on electricity by government has resulted in crippling blackouts. It is high time we start paying the actual cost of electricity because either way, taxpayers, who are us, pay for subsidising electricity through our funding of ZPC operations;
• Zimbabwe Power Company should seriously look into opening a solar SBU which taps into the obvious demand for solar solutions for both individuals and corporates. If the state owned operator does not do so in the near future, and more and more people move away from the conventional grid, ZPC will have fewer customers in future. ZPC has a competitive advantage of being able to subsidise its operations and offer cheaper services to the market;
• Every government building rooftop, new housing development, new corporate headquarters etc should be encouraged to retrofit or incorporate solar energy for lighting and heating purposes. The energy ministry must look into legislating that a property over a certain monetary value must have solar energy;
• The energy ministry needs to lobby the Finance Ministry to remove customs duty on solar batteries and inverters. Storage of alternative energy is almost always one of the biggest cost drivers and removal or reduction of customs duty would go a long way in reducing the cost of solar energy thus making it accessible to more people;
• It might be the appropriate time to discuss liberalising the energy sector in so far as generation is concerned. IPPs can play a fundamental role in increasing electricity generation and covering the gap when there is an acute shortage in supply. There are over a 100 IPPs holding on to licences for producing alternative energy. There needs to be a holistic assessment of why most of these licences have not converted into actual electricity.
• The fuel crisis is surprising to anyone who finds out that Zimbabwe has a mandatory blending policy. The original reason that was touted for justifying mandatory blending was to ensure cheaper and more accessible fuel for the nation. The energy ministry needs to go back to the drawing board to determine whether the same reasons still exist for justifying mandatory blending.
• There is a lot of research that disputes the alleged benefits of using biofuels. Our energy ministry needs to reassess our biofuel industry so as to ensure that the benefits are felt on the ground. The industry must also be liberalised to add to its competitiveness;
• Demand side management and energy efficiency plays a central role in any discussion that involves solving energy crisis. A short drive in the evening around the CBD will show that almost all buildings will have all the lights on. Whilst this looks good for aesthetics and adding to our status as the city that never sleeps, it is a waste of energy we do not already have. Our government must encourage a culture of promoting energy efficiency and enforcing a culture of switching off unused lights.

Our energy Minister recently called out to all Zimbabweans to help him in the hard task he had been given. He called for a collective effort across all in society. I would opine that the solutions to our energy crisis are both low hanging fruit and the more difficult, unpopular decisions. However, if there is no willpower to make the difficult decisions, Zimbabwe will become a dark country characterised by fuel queues.