‘Power efficient machinery way to go’
GOVERNMENT has been charmed by cost-effective power usage at roofing and building materials manufacturer Turnall Holdings, and will consider copying the firm’s example for a national template.
This was revealed by Energy and Power Development Minister Fortune Chasi, when he toured the Turnall plant in Harare yesterday after the firm won the 2019 Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) Energy Efficiency Award.
Speaking after the tour, Minister Chasi said Government was impressed by Turnall, which has invested in power efficient machinery. This in turn cuts on the firm’s power bill particularly at a time the country is grappling with an electricity deficit.
The Government has in the meantime negotiated for further imports from Eskom of South Africa and is also finalising a power import deal from Mozambique.
It is against this background that Government has been calling on both industry and domestic users to cut unnecessary power consumption.
The benefits of this, Minister Chasi said, were not only useful from a Government perspective but they directly impact on the individual company or household.
He said he had been charmed by Turnall’s power efficient model which includes power audits and was thus seeking to further tap into the model and see how this can be implemented at national level.
“We need to use energy efficient equipment. They (Turnall) have told me, interestingly, that it’s now a requirement in their company to order energy efficient equipment.
“We can make this a requirement for everyone because power is very, very important to all of us.
“Turnall has structures that we want to study. I am going to meet their technical team to understand further on how we can nationalise this approach so that we can have these structures in all entities.
“They (Turnall) carry out energy audits by themselves and they manage (consumption) . . . the fact that they have got structures to manage their energy, means that they can improve on their bottom line.
“Those companies that are not doing that, am sorry to say, will not have a fat bottom line as they would like to have,” said Minister Chasi.