The minister of Energy, Advocate Fortune Chasi has warned power producers who are failing to resume operations that their licences will be revoked. The move can result in about 30 independent power producers (IPPs) losing licences.
Last Friday, Chasi assured productive sectors of the economy that they would get adequate electricity and fuel to power their operations. Addressing delegates during the Zimbabwe Annual Mining Conference in Victoria Falls, Chasi said:
The ministry is set to launch a Renewable Energy Policy once all approvals have been achieved, which will promote the uptake of renewable energy projects and allow for competitive procurement selection processes for the development of future projects.
This is opposed to the current situation where potential investors solicit for bids and hold on to licences. At the moment, more than 30 entities have been licensed for power generation with capacity in excess of 5 000MW.
Those currently not demonstrating capacity to execute their projects will have their licences revoked to avoid rent-seeking tendencies.
The minister further disclosed that the review of all licences issued to potential investors to establish if the projects will be implemented in the short to medium term is already underway. The Herald reports that about 13 IPPs are already generating up to 13,2MW of power, which is being fed into the national grid.
More: The Herald