Zimbabwe needs energy policy in companies

Lack of energy policies in companies is contributing to the wastage of power at a time the country is only producing half of its 2 200MW peak demand, a preliminary report on energy efficiency has established.

The study, commissioned by the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) is being carried out by an consulting firm, Sustainable African Energy Consortium in partnership with the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre to find ways to conserve energy.

It focused on consumption patterns in the agricultural, mining, manufacturing, commercial services, transport and building services sectors and has so far covered entities that consume almost half of Zimbabwe’s energy output.

“There is inadequacy in personnel responsible for energy efficiency and management nationally,” SAEC said in its interim report .

There were no energy policies or a culture to promote energy efficiency in organisations while antiquated and inefficient equipment also contributed to high consumption, it added.

“There is a lack of awareness of the importance of energy efficiency, and  employees in entities are not motivated to improve energy performance of organisations,” said SAEC.

ZETDC said between 2013 and 2014 the domestic household sector was the highest energy consumer while a total of 8290 GWh of electricity was used in 2013 across all sectors.

According to the study, the agriculture sector could save 12 percent of its energy consumption, commercial 16 percent, domestic 22 percent, manufacturing 18 percent and mining seven percent if the report’s recommendations were implemented.

The study recommended institution of company energy policies with active support of top management for continual energy improvement, integration of production and training of company energy efficiency managers or personnel to improve capacity to manage energy.

It also recommended installation of check meters for bill verification and sub-meters for measurement and monitoring energy consumption, water consumption and compressed air usage.

The report also recommended ways to reduce consumption of power both by domestic and commercial users by switching off electricity when not in use, improving general lighting in office buildings as well as using energy conserving lighting among others.-The Source

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