Lovemore Chilimanzi

Lovemore was one of the founders of the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP). As lead team member for both ZESA (Zimbabwe’s national utility) and then BPC (Botswana’s national utility), Lovemore played a key role in the formulation of agreements, rules, standards, performance monitoring and problem-solving during formation and operation of the SAPP interconnected grid and electricity trade.

He was a member of the SAPP Management Committee, Member of the SAPP Co-ordination Centre Board, Member of the SAPP Operating and Markets Subcommittees for more than 10 years. Lovemore was a key member of the SAPP team that produced the SAPP Agreement Between Operating Members, the Operating Guidelines and the Electricity Trading Rules for Southern Africa. He was part of the team that set up the first competitive electricity market in Southern Africa, the short-term energy market (STEM), in 2001 and the succeeding Day Ahead Market (DAM). He held positions of Board Chairperson and OSC chairperson for multiple terms.

He therefore has an in-depth understanding of both the context and the technical operations of SAPP and very strong relationships with key regional counterparties. In his portfolio as the Senior Manager for Operations and Electricity Trading at the Botswana Power Corporation and ZESA, Lovemore negotiated numerous bilateral inter utility and power plant PPAs, including with APR, KSE, Eskom, ZESCO, EDM, SNEL, ZESA and NamPower. Lovemore has over 30 years’ experience in this area.