Households Feeding 20MW Back Into National Grid From Solar Panels - ZESA
Almost 300 households and businesses with solar power have subscribed to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) net metering programme and are collectively feeding over 20MW during the day into the national grid, an official has said.
Net metering is a system that allows solar energy system owners to send back excess electricity to the grid during the day and get credit for it. They then draw electricity from the grid during the night or on a cloudy day and only pay the net balance.
ZESA stakeholder relations, communications and welfare manager George Manyaya told reporters on Monday that so far, 21.3MW are being fed into the national grid under the net metering system. Said Manyaya:
The response has greatly increased after the net metering promotion announcement last quarter. Since the announcement in March, in excess of 5MW of applications have already been received.
The net metering threshold was at 100kW as regulated in the Electricity Net Metering SI 86 of 2018 and increased to 5MW in SI 38 of 2022. This resulted in increased registration in the programme.
We have 299 registered clients as of April 4, 2024…100 domestic and 199 commercial. So far, 21,3MW is registered to date, reducing demand from the ZETDC grid by 21,3MW.
ZESA had registered and commissioned seven schools that are now benefiting from the net metering programme.
Meanwhile, Manyaya said a large number of domestic clients eager to sign up for the project have off-grid solar systems which are not suitable for net metering as they require hybrid or grid-tied inverters to be able to export power into the grid.
Institutions such as universities and schools with solar installations are encouraged to apply for net metering so they can sell at weekends and during school holidays and cut their bills at other times.
More: Pindula News
