Fact file: Gloria Magombo

• magombo has more than 32 years of experience in the energy sector spanning the fields of engineering, management, power sector reform and regulation;

• Her key areas of experience and expertise, include strategy development and implementation, general management, project management, power plant operations and maintenance, plant optimisation and testing, generation planning, feasibility studies, energy sector regulation and training of technical staff and general management;

• before her appointment as energy permanent secretary, magombo served as the Ceo of the Zimbabwe energy regulatory Authority (Zera);

• she was the mD of an international consultancy firm, Norconsult botswana;

• magombo worked as regional energy advisor with southern Africa global Competitiveness Hub;

Hwange Power Station.

During off-peak periods when demand is low, some units at Kariba Power Station (peaking power plant) are shut down and at this time no imports will be required.

Currently, Zimbabwe has existing Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), which are as follows: Zesco, 100MW firm; Eskom, 50MW firm; and HCB, 50MW firm capacity and EDM, 50MW. The utility also has non-firm contracts which go up to 450MW mainly during off peak and when excess capacity is available from the likes of Eskom.

Outside the existing PPAs, additional power is obtained through the SAPP Energy Market namely the intra-day market, dayahead-market, forward physical markets, weekly/monthly markets where utilities place advance bids indicating their power requirements whilst those with excess also indicate capacity they will have available to offer.

Given that Zimbabwe has ongoing generation expansion projects, which are expected to be commissioned before the end of 2022, the level of imports are expected to go down initially upon commissioning of such projects, which include Hwange Expansion and various IPP projects under construction.

However, it is important to note that as the economy is growing, the demand will continue to grow and plans are in place to build new capacity, including large hydro on the Zambezi basin and more solar and wind which will include storage in future.

FM: Do you have any policies in place to

• she is a former executive commissioner of Zimbabwe electricity regulatory Commission.

• she served as a performance engineer and generation expert for Zesa;

• she served as the regional chairperson of Capacity building portfolio for the regional electricity regulators Association (rerA) before she was appointed as the chair for rerA prior to her reassignment as secretary for energy and power Development;

• magombo served as a councillor at the engineering Council of Zimbabwe and also served in various boards, including, as the vice chairperson of the Harare Institute of technology board;

• she is a representative of Zimbabwe to the International renewable energy Agency; and

• magombo has represented the government and sector on special committees on energy issues and has presented papers at various meetings.

attract investors into power generation?

GM: Yes, we do. Zimbabwe through the Electricity Act (13:19) of 2002, allows for the private sector participation in electricity generation and also provides for the establishment of the electricity regulator, now Zera.

As a result of the law, the number of private companies venturing into electricity generation has increased and the regulator (Zera) has since licenced a total capacity of more than 5 000MW. There are currently a number of solar projects, which have been commissioned and others are at various stages of development as either independent power producers or for own consumption with excess being sent to the grid.

In order to boost investment in the electricity generation, the ministry developed the Renewable Energy Policy, which has its own milestones and timelines. To this end, government adopted several incentives, including the following:

•National

project status and tax incentives for renewable projects;

Development of the Government Implementation Agreement (GIA);

Prescribed Asset Status;

Viability gap funding for off-grid projects with Ministry of Finance and Economic Development;

Third party grid access;

Reduced licensing fees and requirements for developers of renewable energy projects; and

Duty rebate equipment. on renewable energy