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Smoke rises from the cooling towers at Bulawayo Power Station in this file photo

Oliver Kazunga Acting Business Editor—
ALL is set for the Regional Electricity Regulators Association of Southern Africa (Rera) 11th annual conference which opens in Victoria Falls today to discuss among other issues power shortages that are curtailing the region’s long-term economic development goals. The conference, which runs under the theme, “Leveraging the Sadc Region’s Energy Potential through an integrated approach”, seeks to discuss power generation, supply and demand in the Sadc region.

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority communications officer Gladman Njanji told Business Chronicle yesterday that about 150 delegates were expected at the two day event.

“Delegates have started arriving ahead of the conference and its all systems go. All the countries from the region are fairly represented by their energy regulatory authorities’ chairpersons and chief executive officers,” he said.

During the two-day event, some of the key issues to be interrogated include developing a regional electricity market, Africa clean energy corridor, grid integration of renewable energy Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and electricity tariff and performance indicators.

The Minister of Energy and Power Development or his representative is expected to give a key note address.

Zambia Institute of Infrastructure Services Professor Jorry Mwenechanga is expected to present a paper on creating an enabling environment for investing in the energy sector.

A representative of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa was also expected at the conference to talk about the grid integration of renewable energy by IPPs.

Of late, the region has experienced power generation constraints and planned major investments to improve electricity generation but the projects remain on paper due to funding constraints.

Sadc’s electricity deficit was estimated at more than 4,000 megawatts as individual countries struggle to meet the growing demand in both cities and rural areas.

As part of efforts to address the power situation in the region, Southern African governments have established the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), whose main mandate is to facilitate provision of reliable and economic electricity.

SAPP is headquartered in Zimbabwe.

Analysts note that the region has for long planned major investments in power generation but most of the projects remain on paper due to funding challenges.

Among such vaunted projects is the Grand Inga in the Democratic Republic of Congo which is expected to generate over 40,000MW.