ZETDC adopts cost-cutting measures

THE Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) has adopted the Reliability Based Maintenance (RBM) strategy as a cost-cutting measure that will enhance network reliability in energy transmission and to boost public confidence.

Speaking on the sidelines of the ZETDC second annual engineering risk symposium in Vumba, ZETDC Eastern region general manager, Engineer Abel Gurupira said the shift from traditional maintenance methods was aimed at reducing unanticipated power cuts, thereby ensuring constant and reliable energy supply to consumers.

“Our customers rely on electricity for the running of their day-to-day businesses and they expect the supply to be constant and uninterrupted,” he said.

“The traditional maintenance methods, however, were fragmented and would at times result in unanticipated breakdowns.”

Eng Gurupira said RBM was an all-encompassing strategy that grouped together all the other traditional maintenance methods for a calculated and effective servicing of power supply equipment.

“Sometimes, we were over-maintaining non-essential assets,” he said.

“We had to shift from the traditional strategies to spend less time working on non-essential assets and make sure we did the right maintenance on the most critical equipment.”

ZETDC’s vision of RBM is to achieve for its customers optimum environmental, health and safety compliance, and desired plant usability by establishing the most economical balance of corrective, preventive, and predictive maintenance activities to ensure plant assets perform as required.