Prepaid meter installations have been hampered by the shortage of foreign currency

THE Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has procured and installed 612 000 prepaid electricity meters in households and businesses throughout the country.
The programme began five years ago as the power utility tries to improve revenue collection.
“ZETDC has successfully completed phase one and the project is now in phase two with a thrust to empower consumers to manage their own consumption,” ZETDC said in its latest internal publication.
“To date, ZETDC has installed 612 000 meters from an eligible base of about 700 000 in small institutions and domestic premises countrywide, which translates to 87 percent of the eligible customer base. This excludes the 30 000 medium and large power users where standard prepaid meters cannot be deployed due to technological limitations,” the power utility added.
Prepaid meter installations have, however, been hampered by the shortage of foreign currency that was affecting various spheres of the country, leading to ZETDC roping in private players.
In February this year, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority licensed 17 private companies to sell the meters under a customer supplied scheme.
This came after ZETDC, a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings, resolved to allow private companies to procure and distribute pre-paid meters after failing to meet demand due to critical shortages of foreign currency.
The licensed companies include Easttown (Pvt) Limited, Finmark Industries, Mining and Industrial Suppliers Solutions for Africa (Pvt) Limited, ZB Capital, Altimate Communications, Engineering World, Fueltec Zimbabwe, G Telecoms, Helcraw Electrical, Heliflex Investments, Paramount Cables, Sidal Engineering, Solarhart Zimbabwe, The Battery Centre, Speedfire (Pvt) Limited and Carleon Trading.
The pre-paid meters were introduced as a debt recovery measure in 2013. Customers who owed ZESA would have a percentage of their prepaid electricity purchase deducted to service their debt with the power utility.
ZETDC has also engaged five independent prepaid meter installers, selected from 24 bidders, to expedite the installation of 14 261 meters.
The installers who made the grade out of 24 bidders are Wall Greens, Patrid, Range Grove Sales, Kelldata and Simrose.
The installers have been demarcated specific areas of operation and are guided by regions to expedite the process.
Patrid and Range Grove Sales have been tasked to install 38 200 pre-paid meters in the western region.
Kelldata and Simrose will install 8 464 meters in the Harare region, while Wall Greens has been tasked to service customers in Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, southern region, Masvingo, Manicaland and the northern region.
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