POWER utility Zesa Holdings will invest nearly $200 million towards the installation of smart meters for medium and heavy consumers of electricity.

This comes after Zesa said it had completed installation of 590 518 prepaid meters, Phase one of the prepaid meter project, which is 6 percent behind the target due to foreign currency payment challenges.

“The total cost for the prepaid metering project was around $100 million and the total cost for smart metering project is estimated at around $190 million including cost of the Meter Data Management System,” Zesa said.

According to Zesa, points targeted for smart meters contribute around 60 percent of ZETDC’s revenue. Smart meters are high precision intelligent prepaid metering systems with bidirectional communication capability.

The power utility is targeting to install 4 000 smart meter units by December this year and a total of 40 000 when the project is completed in 2019. The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company said 25 000 of the awarded tender for 130 000 units have been delivered.