Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has applied for a tariff increase.
ZETDC is a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings. In a statement, the company said that it had filed an application with the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority.
The company says that the increase is motivated by current economic trends which have eroded the current tariff.
ZETDC also said that the cost of generating power had tremendously gone up thereby making it unsustainable for the company to continue operating under current circumstances. The company said:
The tariff applied for will enable ZETDC to raise the required working capital for the improvement of among other things, local electricity generation, procurement of critical spares as well as electricity imports.
The application for a tariff increase comes at a time when the country has a huge power deficit characterised by long hours of power cuts.
Power utility, ZESA, attributes the shortage to shrinking water levels at Kariba Dam. It also says that the ageing equipment at Hwange Thermal power station exacerbated the deficit.
The industry has already nodded to the suggested tariff increase proposal provided the increase would ensure the availability of electricity. It argues that electricity remains both sustainable and cheaper compared to other sources of power including generators.
Generators have proved to be unsustainable particularly because fuel prices are always going up. Moreover, fuel has been scarce hence unreliable.
More: The Herald
To sustain the current corruption ratio a tariff hike has to be effected! thus jungle economics to the fullest!!