A project led by Zonke Energy (South Africa)
Zonke Energy was founded in 2017 with a mission to deliver clean and affordable energy to informal settlements. We power lights, mobile phones, TVs, refrigerators and much more from a central power hub. Our pre-paid metering platform brings it all together, making payments and monitoring a snap, so our customers can seamlessly enjoy the benefits of clean energy.
“The new connections will add capacity in an organic way and create possibilities for energy transfer between the grid and the SHS owners in the case of excess energy production” says Alex Densmore, Technical Director at Zonke Energy. The development of features on an existing App will enable energy trading. The project will focus on developing an electronic interface to allow SHS owners to connect to the mini-grid and buy or sell power.
Context
In South Africa alone, 1.5 million people live in informal settlements with no access to electricity. Residents rely on expensive and dangerous alternatives such as paraffin or illegal grid connections.
Most of our customers could spend over R400 per month on dirty, poor quality fuels such as paraffin and petrol for generators. They must also contend with dangerous and unreliable informal grid connections.
Objectives
Solve difficulties to reach power access due to geography, economic exclusion, and strong historical forces.
Activities
• Deliver safe and affordable power to dense urban informal settlements and the new project will allow owners of Solar Home Systems (SHS) to connect to the grid.
• Offer a suite of integrations and partnerships with some of the leading payment platforms in South Africa. Kunye Payments makes it easy for our customers to engage with our service using vouchers, debit cards or mobile money.
• With Lykglas platform making it easy for operators to understand what’s happening, onboard new customers, and manage payments. Also pioneering customer data management by building an intuitive dashboard for clients to understand their energy use and take control of their expenses.
Impacts
Zonke Energy’s modular mini-grids serve up to 16 households with affordable, reliable, safe and clean energy.
