Business Reporter

THE lasting solution to the country’s electricity challenges lies in the private sector taking a leading role in energy and power development initiatives while consumers also need to embrace green energy sources to ease the burden on national grid, Energy and Power Development Minister, Advocate Fortune Chasi, has said.

The Minister, who held intense engagements with members of the public on Twitter on the energy gap facing the economy, had the opportunity to shed light on policy interventions while responding to questions. While acknowledging the country was facing severe load shedding running to 18 hours a day in some places, Minister Chasi said Government cannot solve the energy problem alone and called every stakeholder to play their part.

“It’s clear that the private sector has to play a serious role in the energy sector and a diminished role by Government in the generation of power is inevitable. We will support new ideas and new private entrants into the sector. We will expedite investment processes and incentivise,” he posted.

Minister Chasi was asked to clarify the kind of incentives necessary to attract investment into the energy sector. Some suggested that the prevailing tariff structure was not competitive and must be urgently reviewed upwards. Other sought explanation on alleged reports that Econet Wireless Zimbabwe at some point wanted to help Zesa solve the power crisis but were frustrated by some individuals within Zesa management.

In response Minister Chasi said he was “definitely” going to look into the issue saying Econet was a leading company whose views cannot be ignored by Government.

“When they speak I listen. What Mr (Strive) Masiiwa experienced will not happen whilst I’m at this ministry. Any such occurrences should be reported to me directly. Action is guaranteed,” he said.

The public reminded the Miinister Chasi that electricity was a strategic national interest issue that deserves urgent Government attention. Some said corruption and poor management was responsible for Zesa’s woes while others suggested that Government should liberalise the sector with focus on scaling up green energy solutions like solar and wind energy. They called for removal of all duty and VAT on solar batteries, which are regarded as most expensive and yet require constant replacement.

Adv Chasi concurred and commended Econet for leading by example after the company recently commissioned a 466kw solar plant at its Harare headquarters and encouraged all businesses to follow suit. Adoption of energy sources has become a global phenomena and Government needs to come up with comprehensive incentives to promote investment into these, including smaller projects of less than 5MW by both companies and individuals.

“Our system should be primed for that. We need to move away from a model, which sees the public only as consumers. They can be producers of power too and for a change sell to Zesa,” said Minister Chasi in response.

He said a private sector led energy model was more ideal as it reduces pressure on Government while facilitating decentralisation of service. Other countries such as South Africa and Rwanda have embraced the model and it is doable in Zimbabwe, said Minister Chasi.

“You may be interested to know that in Rwanda more than half of the power is generated by private players. Let’s not stick to conventional approaches. Quite frankly I think Government must be an enabler. There are different approaches to guarantee power availability. We are in an extra ordinary situation. Our incentives can’t be ordinary,” he said.