By Tapiwanashe W Mangwiro.
HARARE, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – – In 2017 the government through their regulator Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) introduced a much higher blending ratio of 15% ethanol to serve motorists with E15. E15 was introduced after the country had announced E20 but could not implement it as Green Fuel had difficulties meeting demand.
The decision seemed as a good one in order to conserve the depleting foreign currency stocks in the country.
This was after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr Mangudya said that fuel imports were consuming 40% of the foreign currency in the country. A year later in 2018 the country announced that they are reintroducing E20.
This came to much criticism from motorists saying this would damage their vehicles as there would be too much sugar. The move was introduced as the country was riding on the back of ethanol produced in Chiredzi and Chisumbanje.
With Ethanol burning at a much quicker rate than unleaded petrol, travelling distances per litre were reduced by approximately 17.86%. A litre of E5 petrol would go for 14 kilometers, but E20 reduced the distance to 11.5 kilometers per litre.
In November 2019 the country’s energy regulator announced that it was cutting ethanol blending by 10% back to E10 from E20. 5 days later the regulator flip flopped and announced that they were returning back to 20% blending.
Ethanol had for the first time consistently been supplied until in November 2019 when ZERA had to enquire about the ability of the producers to meet demand. In a statement ZERA said, “We have been in talks with the producers of ethanol and they have assured us of continued supply and that they can meet demand”. This was when the regulator last hiked their pump prices for diesel and petrol.
In January 2020, ZERA announced its latest fuel price hike since November 25, they increased diesel by 9% to ZWL$19.55 and petrol by 4.8% to ZWL$18.28. It was during this announcement that we noticed the country had gone back to 5% ethanol blending.
The reduction in blending was inevitable as Chimanimani was hit by severe floods through cyclone Idai. This affected the plantations and production of ethanol as people had to be temporarily vacated as there was risk of flooding.
During the rainy season, sugar cane is said not to be harvested hence the speculation that the country is now low on ethanol as was feared back in November. This has been a perennial problem with the producer saying they cannot access their sugar cane fields due to wet fields. Not a single effort has been made to resolve the problem that has been affecting the country for years now.
This confirms the fears that were raised back when the E20 was introduced on the capacity of Green Fuel to meet demand. This comes back to the problem that has always bedeviled our government of policy inconsistency, as in the past 3 years we have had multiple blending ratios depending with supply.
Lack of feasibility studies in order to have a detailed report of how sustainable the project is going to be. This disease has crippled many of the country’s projects to the extent that some have failed before they even takeoff.
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