NMB Holdings says it is looking at opportunities within its branches to install solar to operate completely off-grid.
This comes as most Zimbabwean companies are investing in solar energy in light of the ongoing power cuts, which are seriously affecting operations. Most firms have had to rely on diesel-powered generators, which in turn increases their operational expenses.
“At our head office, we are 100 percent off-grid as we have put in a solar plant that takes care of the data centre and also the general power requirements; in fact, we actually feed power into the national grid,” the group chief executive of NMB, Gerald Gore, told The Financial Gazette.
“We are also looking at opportunities within our various branches where we can install solar so that we are completely off-grid, and in the process, we are also reducing the pressure on power demand.”
The southern African country is struggling to meet its power demand, resulting in load shedding lasting up to 15 to 19 hours a day.
The economy depends on Hwange, its largest coal-fired station, and Kariba, its largest hydro-power generating station, for electricity. Companies have been pinning their hopes on the synchronisation of Hwange units 7 and 8 to mitigate power challenges.
However, the power utility recently revealed that the process requires some time before the units are completely incorporated into the national power grid.
Meanwhile, the country has started witnessing increased power output as Unit 7 was being synchronised into the power grid. Late last week, Zesa announced that it had taken the newly-synchronised 300MW Unit 7 off the grid to pave the way for the final commissioning phase.
After the successful completion of Unit 7, Zimbabwe expects to bring on stream Unit 8, which will add another 300MW, with the synchronisation process tentatively set before the end of this month.
Zesa subsidiary, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), said Hwange Unit 7 has been undergoing successful commissioning tests, which saw it supply a full load of 300 MW to the national grid in some instances.
“We would like to advise our valued stakeholders that Hwange Unit 7, which is still undergoing commissioning tests, has successfully completed the reliability run.
“Engineers have taken it off the grid for evaluation of all systems in preparation for the final phase of commissioning (the performance guarantees test),” the utility said.