BULAWAYO – The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) on Thursday launched the extension of its prepaid, smart meter roll-out programme in Bulawayo as part of the troubled power utility’s elaborate plan to maximise revenue collection.

Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) Western Region general manager LIoyd Jaji, said transferring customers from the postpaid meters to the prepaid and smart meters will ease the country’s power woes.

“This is a move which forms key building blocks towards a smart grid.

“The step has come at a time when the government of Zimbabwe, through ZESA, is addressing issues of revenue assurance, debt collection and inefficiencies in revenue collection among other objectives.

“This is also to address the security of electricity supply as well as making the utility more customer-centric,” said Jaji while addressing stakeholders at a regional launch ceremony in Bulawayo Thursday.

Jaji said the programme was targeting its entire consumer base adding that the power utility has already procured the balance of required pre-paid meters.

“The Western region almost has a 200,000 customer base with a total of 135,000 installed pre-paid meters. Thus, giving us a balance of 40,363 points still to be installed,” he said.

“The region will also witness the installation of 800 smart meters to high priority customers and those companies with negative debt history.”

The ZESA top official further said households with multiple users connected to one bulk meter will also be connected to pre-paid meters.

“The region will also be rolling out pre-paid meters to over 36,000 customers who for a long time have been on looped connections, that is load limited customers.

“These load-limited customers date back to the time of the colonial era.

“The utility is expectant that by end of the second quarter, every client on the post-paid platform would have been moved to the pre-paid system.

“In that regard, installation on domestic load limited points will in the process be modified to facilitate pre-paid meter installations,” he said.

The programme, which is nationwide, was first rolled out in Harare last month.

According to ZETDC, Harare region has a customer base that is over 300,000 and a total of 268,484 installed prepaid meters with a balance of 40,363 points to be installed.

Installations have already begun at residential areas, farming points, and small enterprises.