Tanzania has succeeded in adding 480MW of electricity to its national grid, and surpassed demand by 280MW. Its national grid’s output also increased from 1038MW in 2015, to 1602.34MW this year, a remarkable outcome brought about by the completion of various power projects, especially the gas plants in Kinyerezi I and Kinyerezi II.
“We have constructed a high voltage transmission line of 400KV on a 670km line; Iringa to Shinyanga via Dodoma and Singida, and 200KV line from Makambako – Madaba – Songea in Ruvuma region,” said Dr. Medard Kalemani, Tanzania’s minister for power.
The next project will be the construction of the1384km length of 400KV transmission line from Mbeya-Tunduma- Sumbawanga-Mpanda through Kigoma to Nyakanazi, revealed Dr Kalemani.
Each region in the country has been distributed with 2.5bn/- for rehabilitation of electricity infrastructures, he said. On the other hand, the ministry has managed to connect 12 centres that were using diesel powered engines to the national grid, as a result power company, Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) has saved a total of 138bn/- out of it.
To minimize cost of connecting electricity, the government worked to ensure that all the essential equipment needed to install the service are manufactured in the country, stated the minister.
“The list of equipment that are now manufactured here includes Luku metres, electricity poles, cable wires, transformers. More investors are welcomed to run open accessory- making factories,” noted Dr Kalemani adding that the factories among other things create job employments for local people.
So far, about 3400 Tanzanians have been employed in the factories that produce electricity poles and by stopping to import electricity poles from South Africa, the minister said, Tanesco has also managed to save a total of 162.23bn/-.
About power supply in rural areas, the minister said a total of 8,587 villages have been connected to power project from Rural Energy Authority (REA), out of 12,000 villages in the country.
By June 2021 all villages in the country will be supplied with electricity as it was promised by President Magufuli, and that tariffs of electricity will continue to go down, reaffirmed Dr Kalemani.
He went on to explain that, it has never happened before in history to have a district that has full coverage of electricity in all villages.
“But this time the government has made it, there are 34 districts that are fully covered with power supply, same spirit will go countrywide,” he said, adding that a total of 11,070 public institutions have also connected to electricity between 2015 and 2019, up from 3,200 that were enjoying the service in the past.