The government is putting in place a number of measures in order to resolve the current power crisis. The following measures were announced by Minister of Information Monica Mutsvangwa during the 25th Cabinet Meeting:

• large hotels in the Victoria Falls will pay their ZESA bills in foreign currency
• “special incentives shall be provided through duty waivers on imported solar equipment”
• “shall be mandatory for all new construction projects to be solar-powered”
• mining companies under the banner of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines to pay a cost recovery electricity tariff to ZESA, and to directly procure extra power supplies from the Southern African Power Pool as well as to mobilise a lump sum towards the settlement of the existing power imports debt arrears

The government hopes that these measures will go a long way in easing the power crisis that has plunged the majority of Zimbabweans into darkness. Minister Mutsvangwa said the measures will help unlock “power imports” whilst simultaneously “reducing reliance on power from the national grid”.

Also read, South African President Says Zimbabwe Has Been Able “To Pay Up The Debt They Owe To Eskom”

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ZESA’s efforts to ease the power crisis are finally producing results even if the impact right now is minimal. Yesterday, Minister of Information Monica Mutsvangwa claimed that ZETDC has finally gotten access to electricity from the Southern Africa Power Pool due to a US$2 million facility.

…Furthermore, ZESA is now accessing 300MW during off-peak hours. This additional power is availed through the Southern African Pool Day Ahead Market under a US$2 million facility which was mobilised by ZETDC from its own resources. This [additional power] has reduced the duration of loadshedding nationally in most areas – I’m sure you have noticed, we are actually getting our electricity earlier than before and its taking longer to go in the morning.

Cabinet was informed that pertaining to the 400MW Eskom Import Power Scheme; negotiations are still under way and a more definitive position on the outcome of the negotiations will be issued once the remaining loose ends have been concluded.

Honourable Monica Mutsvangwa

The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) is a cooperation of the national electricity companies in Southern Africa with the support of the SADC. The members of SAPP have created a common power grid between their countries and a common market for electricity in the SADC region.

Day-ahead market??

The Day-Ahead Market system allows participants to sell non-committed generation capacity (and in future possibly demand-side resources) on a day-ahead basis, and contributes to the regional optimisation of energy resources. Significant savings on time and effort, as well as a dramatic increase in the reliability of the settlement process, have been realised.
For SAPP the Day-Ahead Market system is a sustainable asset, playing an important role in the management and operation of the power supply infrastructure in Southern Africa.

The day-ahead market the Honourable Minister referred to is a system to enable daily trading of electricity between SADC countries (and administrate and settle complex electricity trading agreements). The market was established back in 2006/7 and was the first implementation outside Europe and the world’s largest power exchange.

Spot the difference

As the Minister claimed in the Cabinet briefing load-shedding appears to have reduced in duration by about 3 hours in our area, though I’ve seen some people on Twitter complain that they are yet to see any changes whatsoever.

Hopefully, the negotiations with Eskom go well and the power crisis that has crippled businesses across the country can restore normal service.

Also Read, Vandalism Forces ZESA To Install Geo-tracking Sensors And Cameras On Transformers

The post ZESA Now Accessing 300MW From Southern Africa Power Pool’s Day-Ahead Market appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA is finally receiving 400MW from Eskom and their spokesperson has come out and said that this means that Loadshedding can now return to the more palatable Stage 1 with 5-hour powercuts down from the 16 hours Zimbos we fast becoming used to.

The electricity supply situation has improved significantly following interventions by both Government and the line ministry to access power from the region.

I can confirm that we started receiving power from Eskom on Thursday after payment modalities were worked out by both utilities. This power supply situation gives predictability to load-shedding and largely puts all customers in Stage 1 load-shedding. So there is significant relief, but does not eliminate load- shedding

Fullard Gwasira – ZESA Spokesperson

Whilst the initial timetable produced by ZESA promised that Stage 1 Loadshedding would be 5 hours, in actuality, it was more like 8 hours for most people so instead of the 5am-10am promised schedule, Stage 1 ended up being 5am-1pm on most days.

Mr Gwasira also acknowledged that Kariba is producing a measly 277MW dow from its 1050MW capacity:

Our plants are still old and still have a high frequency of break down. Kariba has lost 800MW and Eskom is providing 400MW. There is still a gap of about 400MW which will be managed by load shedding

Also read, Kenya Launches Largest Wind Power Plant In Africa

The post ZESA: Loadshedding Back To Stage 1 But Kariba Producing Less Than 300MW appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA has announced a new billing system for domestic consumers of electricity. Instead of paying a flat rate, they want to cushion households that use less power somewhat.

Fullard Gwasira, the ZESA PR Manager said:

The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company would like to advise its valued customers that it has now started implementing the stepped prepayment tariff for domestic consumers to replace the flat tariff of 14c/KWh which was previously in use for domestic customers.

The flat rate tariff afforded customers of electricity a standard tariff for purchase despite the units purchased and the number of times customers bought electricity in the same month and thus wasteful and expensive for low poor users.

The prepayment tariff is designed to encourage practices, of conserving electricity to consumers, given the current power supply situation. The stepped domestic tariff electricity encourages consumers to use electricity more sparingly and efficiently and rewards them with a low tariff with heavy domestic power users having to pay more for higher consumption. Customers are thus advised to buy electricity units that are sufficient for their monthly consumption as any excess units would be charged at the higher tariff

How it works

So essentially this works the same way that Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax works in Zimbabwe. The first 50kWh of electricity you pay for in a calendar month now cost $0.06/kWh meaning you will pay $3 for those 50. The next 150kWh of electricity you pay for in a calendar month will now cost $0.30/kWh meaning you will pay $45 for those 150kWh. For any purchases above 200kWh you will be charged $0.40/kWh.

So if you use 200kWh of electricity in a month here is how you can estimate how much you now pay: $3 (for the first 50kWh) + $45 (for the next 150kWh) = $48 (for the total 200kWh).

If you use 250kWh for example, this is how you compute what you pay ZESA: $3 (for the first 50kWh) + $45 (for the next 150kWh) + (50 x $0.40) for the final 50kWh = $68.

ZESA says a typical house uses 250kWh per month so that means a typical house will pay $68 for electricity in a month. But then again we generally have electricity a third of the time and we will be sleeping for most of that time. Maybe we should all just pay for 50kWh and see how far it stretches.

The easy way to look at it

If you paid $50 (besides taxes) per month before the tariffs changed, expect to be paying around $100.80 then add your taxes.

There’s a catch

If you followed my language carefully you might have realised I was talking about how much electricity you pay for, not how much you consume. The ZESA stepped billing system applies on the first purchase you make in a calendar month and is cumulative for successive purchases you make.

Don’t expect the first 50kWh you pay for at any given time to cost $3. You pay $3 for the first 50kWh you pay for in a calendar month.

The other catch is any taxes that apply, you will still incur those…

The post The More ZESA You Use, The More You Pay- Here’s How It Works appeared first on Techzim.

As long as we don’t have power, the scope for economic growth is extremely slim. Energy Minister Fortune Chasi has been trying to tame our power crisis over the past few months to varying degrees of success. Most recently the Minister said that the country is negotiating to get anything between 150 MW to 400 MW from Mozambique.

We are actually in the process of engaging Hydro Cahora Bassa of Mozambique for power imports.

Mozambique has been providing us with 50MW for quite some time and we hope that their capacity will be improving during the course of the month.

After we meet the authorities there we will be able to ascertain the levels of power we will be able to get. I am confident that we will get a significant amount of power.

Fortune Chasi – Minister of Energy

Earlier this month government also confirmed they would begin receiving 400 MW on a daily basis, though in the last week its effect was not felt and load shedding appeared to be back at Stage 2. Fortune Chasi blamed this on a fault at Hwange Power Station:

I must admit there has been a bit of a regression over the last few days; that is not a permanent situation. It has been due to challenges we faced on a number of units at Hwange.

They are actively being sorted out.

Also read, The More ZESA You Use, The More You Pay- Here’s How It Works

The post Zim Negotiating With Mozambique For 150-400MW Of Power appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA introduced a new tarrif model some weeks ago which penalizes heavy electricity users. We once wrote about how the tarrif model works but if you didn’t understand it you can watch the following video:

pic.twitter.com/WlNsYSEVVQ

— Fortune Chasi (@fortunechasi) September 13, 2019

Also read: The More ZESA You Use, The More You Pay- Here’s How It Works

The post Watch: ZESA Explains How New Tarrif Model Works appeared first on Techzim.

Over the past few months, Zimbabwe has been in a crippling power crisis and one of the major reasons for this was that our electricity producers were selling power for peanuts. Well, not literally but they may as well have been.

A few months ago the tariffs were revised but even then they remained low and ever since there’s been word of a tariff increase on the horizon. That hasn’t materialised but it seems closer than ever as the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) recently applied for a tariff review.

If the tariffs set a few months ago were inadequate at the time of the shift, they have become more useless owing to the fact that our local currency has significantly lost its value since the last tariff review and ZETDC acknowledges as much:

The current tariff of ZWLc38,61/ kWh has been severely eroded due to the movement of macroeconomic fundamentals. Therefore viability and service delivery has been compromised.

ZETDC

Strangely enough, the tariff being reported (38.61c/KWh) is actually higher than the one announced when the changes were made (27c/KWh). This tariff was supposed to represent a tariff of US3c/KWh which was a far cry from the US14c/KWh paid by South Africans. Regionally the closest comparison is Zambia who pay US7c/KWh.

That would mean for us to pay a more competitive price for energy the tariff hike would need to be anywhere between ZWL$1.30/KWh being paid in Zambia to ZWL$2.59/KWh being paid in South Africa. That’s a steep hike and I believe ZETDC will place one KWh slightly at around ZWL$0.93 which is equivalent to US5c.

The post ZESA Applies For Electricity Tariff Review appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA promised a tariff increment and today they’ve delivered on that promise.

The new tariffs that domestic customers pay for power have been significantly increased;

There’ll be a fixed monthly charge of $6.08 and then the following charges depending on the KWh’s used:

• 1st 50 KWh – $0.41
• 51KWh – 200KWh – $0.91
• Balance – $3.87

ZESA made a video explaining how their new tariff system works

The tiered pricing system encourages consumers to use less electricity as you’ll be charged more as you break the 50KWh and 150KWh threshholds.

Consumers were currently paying around US2-3c/KWh but the new increment will see them pay around US12c which is aligned closely with pricing of electricity by our regional neighbours.

Institutions along with commercial and industrial players will be charged for energy depending on whether they are using power during Peak, standard or off-peak times

ZESA’s statement regarding the new tariffs noted that the pricing of tariffs will be subject to review on a monthly basis.

Also read, The More ZESA You Use, The More You Pay- Here’s How It Works

The post ZESA New Tariffs: Over 200% Increment In How Much You’ll Pay appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA’s online portal introduced last year only allowed you to check a history of your token purchases. The electricity supply authority has now added a number of new features to that portal.

The portal is currently down but beyond just giving you a history of your token purchases it will also now:

• Allow you to calculate how many units you can purchase for certain amounts
• If you applied for a meter you can keep track on whether or not the meter is now available

The post ZESA Adds New Features To Online Portal appeared first on Techzim.

So one of our readers made a complaint to ZESA that their pre-paid meter was billing them for power they were consuming from their generator during load shedding hours. We got curious and how that could be possible. The explanation is simple really:

Before pre-paid meters

Before ZESA introduced pre-paid meters, the usual way to connect a generator to your house was just to connect the generator’s change over switch next to the main switch (especially a big generator that can power the whole house). You would want the generator to supply power to the MCB (that box with multiple switches for lights, wall sockets etc, mostly situated in the kitchen for some reason) and from the MCB power will then be distributed to the whole house.

After pre-paid meters

When pre-paid meters were introduced, one had to be careful when connecting the generator to make sure they connect it after the meter itself. If generator is connected before the meter, the meter cannot distinguish that this power is not coming from ZESA, it will charge away! You thus need to have a switch after the meter but before the MCB if you want the generator to power the whole house.

The main meter not the little one

By the way, the above applies to the main meter, the one at the main switch. The little meter inside the house is just a customer interface device that helps you check how many units you have and allows you to top up in the comfort of your home.

The post ZESA Meter Can Charge You For Your Generator’s Power If You Connect Wrong appeared first on Techzim.

The minimum amount of ZESA tokens you can buy through EcoCash has been increased from $10 to $20.

EcoCash posted the message on their social media accounts:

Dear valued customer

Please note that ZETDC has set the minimum purchase amount of electricity tokens at ZW$20 for all service providers effective 18 October 2019. The minimum electricity token purchase on EcoCash has therefore been set at ZW$20.

Live Life the EcoCash Way

Update: NetOne has also sent out the same message;

Considering that tariffs have been increased on multiple occasions since the introduction of the $10 minimum charge from a year ago its not surprising that the minimum threshold has been increased.

Also read, ZESA Adds New Features To Online Portal

The post Update: ZESA Increases Minimum Amount Of Tokens You Can Buy On EcoCash & OneMoney appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA has spent a number of months encouraging customers to pay their bills – remember that time when it seemed like the Energy Minister’s vocabulary only consisted of the words “pay your bills”? Well, those days are gone and ZESA will now take a tougher stance.

The official ZETDC circular notifying defaulter of whats to come reads:

NOTICE OF POWER DISCONNECTION TO DEFAULTERS

The ZETDC would like to advise all defaulting customers who are on the post-paid system to settle their electric bills without any further delay to avoid the inconvenience associated with power being disconnected.

ZETDC also advises that it has intensified revenue collection efforts in order to recover the $1.2 billion debt that is locked in defaulting customers to enable the power utility to enhance service delivery…

Whilst the warning might be sincere, I doubt that defaulters will be incentivised to pay what they owe when they don’t have power for 16-18 hours a day. Maybe the debt collection strategy coupled with disconnections will work but considering that it 6 more hours without power per day, there might be some who are just fine with the disconnection since paying customers aren’t in a much better situation right now.

The post ZESA Says They’re Going To Disconnect Post-Paid Customers Defaulting On Bills appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA spokesman Fullard Gwasira took to his Twitter account last night to announce that the prepaid vending system is currently down.

Zetdc would like to advise its valued customers countrywide that it is experiencing system challenges with its prepaid vending system. We thank you for bearing with us during this inconveniencing but temporary situation & we regret the inconveniences being caused.

In the meantime, customers can revert to our banking halls countrywide to purchase electricity tokens whilst the situation is being addressed. Customers will be advised on the progress of full service restoration.

Fullard Gwasira

Without a timeline on when the system will be up again, its probably best for customers who don’t want to be inconvenienced to follow Mr Gwasira’s instruction and only resort to buying tokens on other platforms once getting official confirmation that the system is back up.

Interestingly, Mr Gwasira also noted that customers can also buy electricity on the ZESA self service portal which is still functional.

Also read, ZESA Says They’re Going To Disconnect Post-Paid Customers Defaulting On Bills

The post ZESA Prepaid System Down Countrywide appeared first on Techzim.

On the 19th of October ZESA announced that the minimum token purchasable through EcoCash, OneMoney and other platforms was being raised from $10 to $20. 9 days later, on the 28th they announced that the previously announced minimum purchase would no longer be in use. The new minimum token purchase is now $50.

Considering that the moves come in such quick succession, one would expect that ZESA should have just made the jump from $10 to $50 if they knew that this was their intended destination. It seems as though this recent change might be why ZESA’s prepaid vending system was down countrywide yesterday.

The post It’s Taken 9 Days For ZESA To Increase The Minimum Token Purchase Again appeared first on Techzim.

It seems there’s a lot of confusion regarding ZESA’s new tariff system and with that confusion, people are failing to understand how the tariffs actually work.

With electricity units being sold at tiered rates it seems some people misunderstood this to mean that if your purchase electricity on the first day of the month, you’ll get a promotional/cheaper rate and ZESA has taken to social media to dispell:

ZETDC would also like to advise that there is no promotion or any cheaper electricity to be obtained by purchasing on the first day of the month, as is being reported in the social media. Please note that these messages are not true and should be ignored.

The correct position is that customers can buy the 1st 50 units at 41c, the next 150 units (51-200) at 91c and any other purchases beyond the 200 units arre charged at $3.87. These charges apply at day of a given month, be it the 1st, 10th, 25th etc as long as it is their first purchase of electricity tokens that month.

The post ZESA – Social Media Claims That Electricity Is Cheaper On The 1st Day Of The Month Are False appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA has a pretty comprehensive Self-Service portal but the only problem is the fact that ZESA hasn’t educated consumers on how to use the thing!

After signing up for the portal I realised it’s really useful and contains information and functions such as:

• Token purchase trend from 2014
• A service statement with all electricity purchases dating back to 2016
• List of all purchased tokens
• Unit calculator
• Purchase electricity tokens

Information such as the token purchase trend will allow you to take note of the month you spent more on electricity i.e used more power.

Anyway, I recently noticed that many people simply don’t know that this portal exists and to sign up you simply need to follow a few simple steps:

1. Go to https://selfservice.zetdc.co.zw
2. Click on Register to create an account
3. Select account type (Postpaid/Prepaid)
4. Enter your metre number
5. Enter the token number from your most recent token purchase
6. Enter the amount from your most recent token purchase
7. Enter your personal details and security details for the account you’re creating

That’s all, after creating the account you’ll be able to access the aforementioned functions and information available to self-service users

The post How To Sign Up For ZESA’S Online Portal appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA has released a statement in response to an infamous Twitter account which has been getting attention for clapping back at customers who can’t tell the difference between official and parodies of ZETDC’s twitter account with tweets such as these:

ZETDC’s has now issued out an official statement through their account and it reads:

ZETDC would like to warn its customers about two parody social media accounts, namely @ZETDC01 and @OfficialZetdc (now @ZetdcParody) that purport to be official ZETDC accounts. These are not ZETDC’s official accounts, nor have they anything to do with ZETDC.

These accounts are run by impostors and scammers who use them to mislead and defraud unsuspecting members of the public.

We wish to advise members of the public to ignore these accounts and messages and avoid falling prey to these accounts as they are not official and legitimate ZETDC accounts.

… ZETDC is taking steps to ensure that the account is closed including reporting the fake account to Twitter. You can also help by reporting the fake account to Twitter as well.

ZETDC via Twitter

ZETDC’s statement is pretty surprising considering that one of the accounts plainly listed that it was a parody account and ZETDC acknowledges as much. The account has since added that in its name to make it extra clear. Seems like a funny little incident to me but ZETDC certainly doesn’t see it that way…

The post ZESA Denounces Fake Twitter Accounts Which “Mislead” & “Defraud” Consumers appeared first on Techzim.

ZESA has come out and dispelled rumours that customers are being charged for electricity usage during load shedding periods when they have no access to electricity to begin with.

ZETDC took to their official Twitter account to announce that they aren’t stealing consumers power:

The Zimbabwbe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company has noted with concern the false, mischevious and misleading messages that are circulating through WhatsApp to the effect that the power utility is “stealing” electricity units from prepaid meters during loadshedding and would like to set the record as follows:

i) When there is no electricity there is no that will be flowing through the customer’s meter. The meter, just like any other electrical applicance requires electricity for it to turn and there is no way the meter will be able to turn in the absence of power.

ii) Just like a motor vehicle’s odometer which only turns when a vehicle is in motion, a prepaid electricity meter can only turn when it is powered by electricity, therefore it boggles the mind how and why ZESA would “steal” electricity units, particularly during load shedding.

iii) ZESA has 663 343 prepaid domestic customers on the national electricity grid and their interests are well protected by sound business ethics and practices which observe the principles of corporate governance in service provision. The utility does not engage in activities which are to the detriment of its customers.

ZETDC advises its customers to disregard these malicious messages with the contempt that they deserve, as they seem to be targeted towards causing alarm and despondency.

ZETDC Official Statement

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A recent statutory instrument issued out by the RBZ will ensure the never-ending currency confusion in Zimbabwe… never ends. The statutory instrument orders exporters to pay the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) in forex for the next 6 months.

Yuhp, remember the use of foreign currencies for local transactions was banned a few months ago? Well, ever since the ban, slowly but surely it’s been reversed conditionally by the same people who issued it out…

Anyway, the statutory instrument outlines the following to ZESA:

• money from exporters can only be used to pay for electricity, imports, spare parts/critical equipments, foreign loan repayments and foreign insurance premiums;
• exporters that export less than 80% of their output will still have to pay 35% of their electricity bill in forex (they can pay 100% forex if they want to – Ha! good luck with that!);
• ZESA will keep all the payments in a “special account” reserved for the aforementioned purposes and will need approval from the RBZ to spend the money in these accounts.
• All forex payments must be made from Nostro accounts to bar the use of black-market funds.

Apart from being an implicit admission that the Interbank is a failure that doesn’t work, there are still concerns when an independent organisation suspected of abusing funds has to get approval from a regulator who is also suspected of abusing funds to spend its money.

Arrangements such as these come with a high risk of corruption and the regulatory back and forth screams of a regulator plugging holes as they arise, not long-term planning to fix the problems at the core.

The post RBZ Instructs Exporters To Pay For Electricity In Forex appeared first on Techzim.

You may remember Engineer Koko Matshela -Former CEO of Eskom- whose company was awarded the licence to set up a US$250 million solar power plant that was supposed to generate 100MW back in July with work beginning the following month.

Four months later nothing has happened and Matshela recently blamed the lack of progress on corrupt authorities who need their palms greased in order for things to take off:

Matshela Energy received a generation license July 2019. 6 months later nothing has happened. Our plan was to break ground in August 2019. So many people have tried to extort money from me and I refused. It is a shame

Koko Matshela

His remarks came shortly before ZESA announced that the countries power woes are only going to intensify due to depressed local generation along with reduced “imports from the region” ?:

Notice On Load Shedding

ZESA Holdings would like to advise its valued customers countrywide that load shedding is now being implemented at Stage 2 level due to loss of power imports from the region and depressed local generation.

Load shedding is thus now being implemented over and above the advertised schedule.

Customers will be advised of progress on restoration of imports and improved local generation to minimise the effects of load shedding.

ZESA Holdings sincerely apologises for the inconvenience caused

ZESA Statement

Update 11/12: Fortune Chasi, the Energy Minister invited Mr Matshela to report the corrupt officials:

We take bribery very seriously as Government and its one of the areas that we are focusing on and I want to urge him to publicly give me the names and individuals who asked for a bribe from himself and I can assure you that Government will take action against the individuals

Fortune Chasi

The post Former Eskom CEO Supposed To Invest In 100MW Local Solar Plant Says Corruption Stalling Progress appeared first on Techzim.