Government intends to introduce a new law that makes it illegal to use electric geysers.

GOVERNMENT’s ambitious project to force property owners to stop using electric water geysers and migrate to solar powered geysers as part of efforts to reduce electricity consumption has failed to kick off, the Financial Gazette’s Companies & Markets (C&M) can report.
The project was launched in September 2015, and the expectation was that a law would be swiftly promulgated immediately to make it mandatory for all existing and newly built properties across the country to install solar water heaters (SWH).
In fact, government had threatened to immediately stop all new properties from installing electric geysers and give all properties with the gadgets a few days to replace them with solar geysers.
But this has not happened, 16 months on.
Stephen Dihwa, the principal director in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, told the Financial Gazette’s Companies & Markets that government was still committed to the project but admitted there were serious challenges.
Dihwa, who is currently the acting permanent secretary, said: “We are still committed to it but there is a lot of work to be done. We are still working on the regulatory draft framework which will pave way for the project. What’s holding the project back is that since it will be mandatory, there must be a clear plan. We are also working on the local authority legislation where we want to revise the existing by-laws to ensure that there will be no building that will be approved without solar powered geysers.
“The other issue is to do with quality control. We want these geysers to be manufactured locally. Therefore, we have engaged the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) to work on a series of standards. They should finalise before the end of this first quarter. On the other hand, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority has financed the setting up of a laboratory, which will be used to test the equipment.”
It is estimated that about 300 000 electric geysers are currently installed in Zimbabwe and these, according to Samuel Undenge, the Minister of Energy and Power Development, are responsible for 40 percent of average household energy costs.
The project oversight was placed under the Ministry of Energy, with the country’s integrated power generation and distribution company, ZESA Holdings’ unit, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), being the implementing agent.
The rolling out of the project throughout the country would have stimulated the SWH industry.
Several jobs were expected to be created from this venture.
The success of the renewable energy programme is significant not only because it is a major step towards sustainable power, but also because Zimbabwe has an enormous solar energy potential which, if exploited can supply approximately 10 000 gigawatts hours of electrical energy per year.
Zimbabwe is a perfect arena and space for massive solar water heating projects given that the country has access to over 3 000 hours of sunshine per year, meaning that harnessing such a natural source of energy will go a long way in stimulating and sustaining growth in the fragile economy.
Furthermore, diversifying the country’s energy sources would be beneficial for the nation’s energy security. Besides, it would have transformed the energy market.
Analysts said the project could have gone a long way in helping the country save power from the national grid by between 300 megawatts (MW) and 400MW by 2018, which Undenge described as a virtual power plant.
It was also hoped that power saved could be channelled to other productive sectors of the economy as the country is battling to find solutions to its perennial power shortages.
The financing mechanism proposed by Undenge, that is to allow consumers to access geysers on credit and then recover the cost through ZETDC prepaid platform, was always bound to fail.
Perhaps what the ministry needed to understand was that ZESA’s mandate is to produce and distribute power, and its core business is not to save it. To deliver its mandate, it has to make money out of that.
Now, to have ZESA saving power is indicative that the ministry made a wrong move in the first place.
Dihwa defended the move to involve ZESA.
“ZESA will lead the process,” he said.
“Directly, ZESA’s mandate is to deal with the supply side and make money. But indirectly, it’s ZESA’s mandate again to save electricity consumption. Many would think that ZESA’s role is to encourage customers to use more electricity. But, we have realised it is a benefit not only to the consumer but for ZESA to start promoting the demand side management as well. This means that power saved will be directed to the productive sector. ZESA should remain viable by managing some of the demand costs.”
Apart from that, it was always going to be difficult for cash-strapped government to implement the programme, because its purse is almost empty. It is estimated that to install about 250 000 units, Zimbabwe requires about US$200 million, a figure government cannot mobilise.
Dihwa said: “The other problem we have is financing. We have realised that we cannot leave it to households to finance it on their own. That will be unfair. What we have done is that we have set up a committee, which is engaging local banks to finance it. But banks wanted to know how risk will be managed and if there will be a government guarantee of the loans. We, however, said one of the routes should be to link it with the ZETDC prepaid system.”
The Zimbabwe government wanted to copy the project implemented in South Africa, which failed dismally.
The solar water heater programme in South Africa was launched in 2008 and was driven by the department of energy, and managed by South Africa’s power utility Eskom.
This was, however, on a voluntary scheme, unlike the Zimbabwe government’s strategy to make it compulsory for everyone.
The South African project experienced problems and only about 400 000 households and commercial buildings of the targeted one million units were installed in eight years.
Now, Eskom has failed to continue with the project and it has migrated back to the Energy Department, which has since abandoned the project.
Commenting on the failed South African project, Dihwa said: “We are aware of the reasons why it didn’t do so well in South Africa. We have studied the project and we found out that it had to do with the fact that most geysers supplied in South Africa were not working at all and the other issue was to do with the quality of installation.”
Most of Zimbabwe’s power is coming from Hwange Power Station, the country’s largest coal-fired power plant. Kariba South Hydroelectric Power Station, which used to generate about 750MW, is now generating about 285MW after water available for electricity generation in the lake dropped drastically in recent years, affecting power supply in the country.
The country is also struggling to generate enough electricity from its small thermal power stations in Bulawayo, Harare and Munyati because of obsolete equipment at the power plants, meaning the country continues to face increased power shortfalls.
Despite all its problems with local power generation, Zimbabwe has managed to keep lights on in the last 12 months because the country has been importing expensive power from the region.
But it is no longer guaranteed to continue doing so because power utilities from the region have also been having power shortfalls. In fact, the whole Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is currently having a capacity shortfall of about 8 247MW.
This has seen the entire region going through a difficult spell with respect to power supply challenges necessitating load shedding. This means, regional power utilities can only supply Zimbabwe when they have surplus.
Zimbabwe is generating about 1000 megawatts against a power demand of about 1 600MW. To cover for the shortfall, the country is importing about 500MW during peak hours, 350MW from South Africa’s Eskom and 50MW from Hydro Cahora Basa of Mozambique. It is also procuring about 100MW from diesel generators from an independent power producer in Dema.
Electricity is a critical enabler to the development of the economy. This is why government should not be swayed into believing that the importation of electricity is the solution to the country’s power problem, because the swelling import bill is not desirable to the nation.
It is therefore critical for government to ensure the availability of reliable, affordable and sustainable power that addresses the current power shortages as well as meet future demand, which is critical for the ailing economy.
 [email protected]