ENERGY Minister Soda Zhemu has said 40% of fuel should be sold in local currency.
His remarks, reported by the state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, came in the wake of the lack of fuel sold in Zimbabwe dollars.
He said motorists should be afforded the opportunity to buy fuel in Zimbabwe dollars as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is providing foreign currency to fuel operators in exchange for local currency to procure the commodity.
There are two ways in which fuel is procured in Zimbabwe, either through free funds or through the RBZ facility of foreign exchange auction system which means there are two options to buy fuel with foreign currency or local currency.
Xinhua
Zimbabwe’s energy regulator on Friday commended China for actively supporting energy development in the country.
Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) chief executive officer Eddington Mazambani said nine Chinese independent power producers were currently implementing power development projects in Zimbabwe.
Five of these were doing renewable energy projects and four non-renewable energy projects.
He said the Chinese were about to commission the 50 MW coal-fired Zimbabwe Zhongxin Electrical Energy (ZZEE) power station in Hwange in the western part of the country.
The joint-venture power station between the Chinese investors and their Zimbabwean counterparts will feed the 50 MW into Zimbabwe’s national grid, helping to ease power shortages that have crippled the economy for many years.
Xinhua
Zimbabwe’s fuel consumption declined considerably over the past year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s energy regulator said Friday.
According to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA), petrol consumption in the country declined by 12.53 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year.
In the first three months of this year, the country consumed 163 million liters of petrol, down from 212.9 million liters of petrol consumed during the same period last year.
In terms of diesel, consumption declined by 23.4 percent from 119.7 million liters consumed in the three months up to March last year, to 104.7 million liters during the comparative period this year.
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Xinhua
Zimbabwe is going to tighten the process of issuing licenses to independent power producers (IPPs), the country’s energy regulator said on Friday.
Only serious applicants will be considered, as a few projects have been successfully implemented in the past, according to the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA).
The majority of applicants were seeking licenses for speculative purposes, said ZERA board chairperson David Madzikanda, noting that 93 IPPs have been licensed but most of them have not been commissioned.
“There has been no high rate of success in terms of commissioning of the IPPs largely, because the technology requires foreign currency, which is in short supply in the country,” he said.