The public company, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), is complaining about the high costs of public lighting throughout the country, which amount to 20 million dollars a year, a supply that has no purchase subsidy.

Lighting affects cities, large urban centers, towns and neighborhoods in all municipal territories and beyond, with the costs falling directly on the company, which has to engineer to supply a consumption of more than 1,080 MW at peak times, representing an increase in the order of 50% with the increase in consumers at all levels over the last three years.

To get around the situation, a forum has been set up that includes the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREMI), EDM and the Energy Regulatory Authority (ARENE), whose mission is to find a way out of the cost of public lighting.

According to the head of EDM's Commercial Department, Belmiro Óscar, in the city of Pemba, Cabo Delgado province, "the annual cost of public lighting is around 20 million dollars, which we don't have any subsidy for. So we have to find a strategy to get around this expense".

According to the source, in years gone by, EDM used to supply 500 MW at peak time, a demand that was met by the energy supplied by Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) at an affordable cost that made it possible to overcome some challenges, but today, the peak is 1080 MW and the shortfall EDM buys from private suppliers at extremely high prices, a situation that forces the company to make a cost containment plan.

"The subsidized energy from HCB is half the peak we have today, and the other half we have to get from private suppliers and has a different cost to the cost we have with HCB. In the cost structure, we need to see where we can implement containment and guarantee the sustainability of the company and the fulfillment of the universal electrification agenda by 2030," said the official, quoted by the AIM.

However, the country's electrification agenda comes at a cost, but EDM assures that it is ready to comply, despite the challenges this brings for the sustainability of the business, forcing the company to restructure its business model, identifying inefficiencies as a way of getting around the situation.

"We can't run away, that's the agenda, we have to electrify the country," said the source, adding that the company will have to find a suitable model to make the energy business sustainable.