Power utility, ZESA Holdings, is pushing for another tariff hike to recoup losses and supply more stable electricity to consumers, reported NewsDay.

Recently, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) awarded a US$0.02 per kilowatt hour tariff increase to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company (ZETDC), a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings.

Before the recent tariff increase, ZESA was charging US$0.10 per kilowatt-hour, leaving it operating from a loss-making position.

The average price per kilowatt hour for electricity in the region is US$0.1254, and ZESA is now charging US$0.12.

Speaking during the State of the Mining Industry report breakfast seminar held in Bulawayo last week, ZETDC acting managing director Abel Gurupira said:

We are a regulated authority even with the tariff that we were awarded, let me say we are not yet there. We are almost 79%.

The tariff has been so suppressed; this leads to difficulties in the recapitalisation of ZESA. We have aged machinery.

We saw it fitting that we structure everything. We have been driving this vehicle since the 1930s or 1940s.

We need a mindset shift to say ZESA is government so everything from the government must be cheap.

This business of the vehicle will collapse then we will realise that what is better is to have the right price with stable electricity or to have erratic delivery of electricity at a cheap price.

He said there were initiatives by SADC countries to tap into the more than 2 000 megawatts (MW) of power lying idle in Angola due to transmission challenges.

Gurupira added that Zimbabwe will require 2 000MW in the next two to five years.

Currently, the Zimbabwe Power Company, a ZESA subsidiary, is generating just above 1 000MW of power.