Browsing: power generation

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is now legally able to incorporate drones in its infrastructure management. This announcement was made at an event the national power company held to mark its acquisition of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operator’s Certificate (ROC).

According to an article by Newsday published on June 15, 2022, speaking at ZESA’s drone technology certification ceremony in Harare Executive Chairman Sydney Gata said certification of the use of drone technology in their day-to-day operations is expected to improve service delivery.

“This will enable a quicker turn-around in fault finding and rectification resulting in the continuous and consistent provision of electricity to our customers. Drone technology will also assist ZETDC in its fight against vandalism and theft of electricity.”

ZESA is battling a myriad of challenges including incessant faults, mainly emanating from aging power distribution infrastructure. This has seen the country grappling with endless power cuts.…

State power utility Eskom reported a loss amounting to ZAR 20.5 billion ($1.2bil) for the financial year 2020. The power producers generated revenue to the tune of R200billion($12.3bil) which failed to match up to the previous year’s revenue by 1.29%. The poor results were attributed to challenges in capacity and untenable economic climate.

The major contributing factor to the huge loss position can be traced to finance costs which came up at ZAR 31.3billion ($1.9bil). The costs in question were related to servicing a debt of ZAR 483 billion($25bil) which the company is struggling to reduce. 

The heavy debt position for Eskom is particularly distressing for South Africa as the South African government is the largest guarantor for Eskom’s debt. Eskom has also been a recipient of government bailout funding set at ZAR138 billion($8.4bil) until 2022. This heavily places a burden on the country’s budget and is a significant threat …