Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has said more than 350 000 households who have applied for electricity connection are still waiting to be connected to the grid,
ZETDC commercial director Mr Ralph Katsande there were numerous challenges to connecting new clients, mainly involving the required infrastructure. He told The Herald in a recent interview in Victoria Falls:
As a country, we are facing a backlog of over 350 000 that require connection. We have got a customer base of over 850 000 and potentially we can connect another 360 000, but we don’t have backbone infrastructure to do that.
He said in the last couple of months, ZETDC had been on a recapitalisation drive to mobilise funds for projects including acquiring replacement equipment.
ZETDC is also fighting thieves stealing cables and transformers, despite the minimum 10-year-sentences for this.
Energy production and availability are part of the priority areas for the Government in its development agenda as the power supply is key to economic stabilisation and growth.
Katsande said ZESA and ZETDC had come up with interventions to enable the utility to play its role in economic growth.
Some of the interventions include increasing power generation to augment supply and signing up agreements with independent power producers to eliminate load shedding and eventually make the country a net exporter.
ZETDC also has slightly over 23 000 customers who are off supply for long periods because of vandalism, which is costing the utility US$4 million per year in equipment damage and US$1.6 million per month in revenue.
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