The energy sector has been hit by sub-standard goods being imported into Zimbabwe, affecting unsuspecting consumers in the country. Consumers are buying sub-standard solar panels and light bulbs among other appliances.
Speaking during a citizen engagement on renewable energy and energy efficiency workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority’s engineer in renewable energy, Tobias Mudzingwa said that consumers should buy products from well-known brands to avoid buying substandard products.
“Our market has been flooded with these Chinese or let me say sub-standard products,” said Mudzingwa.
A test that was done on one of the LED bulbs labeled 20 watts showed that the light was actually 7,5 watts a sign that the product was sub-standard.
Consumers who participated during the engagement had earlier on raised a question on why the energy savers were not brighter saying it was negatively affecting eyesight.
The engineer said that ZERA was making inspections countrywide to make sure that the sub-standard products are phased out
“The technology of LED is the best technology but iri kungosangana nema sub-standard products,” (The technology of LED is the best technology but it is being let down by sub-standard products) Mudzingwa said .
Sub-standard energy products found their way into the Zimbabwean market before the coming in of Statutory Instrument 21 of 2017 which bans the importation, manufacture, distribution or selling of any or all lighting products which do not meet the Minimum Performance Standard according to Mudzingwa.
ZERA has been encouraging Zimbabweans to use the solar energy and also use of LED lights to save electricity as it cannot meet the demand.
The country is importing electricity from Mozambique (50 megawatts [MW] ), South Africa (400MW) and Zambia (150MW) to meet the public demand.
