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Africa GreenCo says it is positioning itself as a key player in accelerating renewable energy deployment in Zambia and the wider region through its dual role as an off-taker and operational agent under the ZamWatt platform.
Discussing Africa GreenCo’s role in the ZamWatt initiative during a panel discussion at the Energy Forum for Africa Conference in Lusaka on Thursday, company Head of Business Development, Chikoma Kazunga, said the platform would help create a more scalable model for bringing renewable energy projects online while supporting cross-border electricity trading.
GreenCo, he said, would serve as an off-taker of power generated by independent power producers (IPPs), buying electricity and supplying it to customers.
Read more: GreenCo raises $21.5 million to expand regional power trading
“GreenCo is playing two roles within the Zalmont structure. The first one, as you saw, is that we are an off-taker of power. We want to buy power from some of those IPPs and sell it to our customers,” he said.
Kazunga noted that a key advantage of the ZamWatt platform was its ability to accommodate multiple off-takers, allowing other companies to participate alongside GreenCo.
“The beauty of the Zalmont platform is that it does allow for multiple off-takers. While GreenCo is an off-taker in that structure, there is room for other off-takers to come into the structure and participate, and we hope that they will,” he said.
Beyond its role as a buyer and seller of electricity, GreenCo will also act as an operational agent responsible for coordinating activities between IPPs and ZESCO.
Kazunga explained that this role would include ensuring projects were properly scheduled, coordinating power wheeling arrangements and managing metering and reconciliation of electricity injections at the end of each month.
“Someone needs to be responsible to ensure that these projects are being fully scheduled. There needs to be coordination with respect to how the power will be wheeled, and there needs to be metering and reconciliation done for these injections at the end of the month,” he said.
GreenCo said the ZamWatt structure would provide a replicable framework that could simplify transactions and allow renewable energy projects to be developed and connected to the grid more efficiently.
“A programme like this allows for real scalability in how we can bring renewable projects online because we have a structure that is replicable and allows transactions to close very quickly and easily,” Kazunga said.
The company said the model aligns with its broader vision of accelerating renewable energy deployment in Zambia and the region, while also supporting regional electricity trade.
Kazunga said the platform could facilitate the participation of power traders and create opportunities for electricity imports and exports where required.
“This fits very nicely within GreenCo’s vision for what we need in order to facilitate borderless movement of electricity in the region,” he said.
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