Tanzania government is grappling to end acute shortage of electricity power supply, and the government is doing all it can in order to avoid the long rationing scheme which has plunged the nation since October 2023.
Tanzania’s national grid, which has an installed capacity of more than 1,900 Megawatts of electricity suffered from broken infrastructure at gas wells and gas-fired power stations, as well as reduced water levels at hydropower dams.
Currently the debate on power scarcity is ongoing despite the fact that the Deputy Prime Minister who doubles as the Minister for Energy Dr Dotto Biteko ordered the use of third turbine at the ongoing JNHPP station to produce 705 megawatts to supplement the incurring shortages.
Despite the government is currently embarking on one of the fastest roll-outs of electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 38 percent of Tanzanians have power, according to the World Bank.
The Rufiji Hydropower Project with the capacity to generate 2,115 MW of electricity has entered commercial operation after three turbines have now been switched on to supplement to the national grid.
Electricity generation in Tanzania is below the increasing demand driven by the expanding economy and rapid urbanization despite the fact that the government has decided to switch on three turbines from the partially operational Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project Plant (JNHPP) to supplement to the national grid.
Although Tanzania is endowed with diverse energy sources including biomass, natural gas, hydro, coal, geothermal, solar, wind, and uranium, but much of these are untapped.
The country’s total energy installed capacity as of December 31, 2023 reached 1,938.35 Megawatts. Recently, the three turbines with an installed total capacity of 705 MW were commissioned in July this year, raising the total installed capacity to 2,408 MW.
However due to the multiplicity, smallness, unreliability, wear-out and high cost of operation of power stations, coupled by poorly developed transmission infrastructure that often lack redundancy, these have caused Tanzanians to suffer blackouts.
But the current electricity production in the country does not align with the rapidly growing economic and social activities, resulting in a significant infrastructure deficit for electricity transmission and distribution.
In the past 20 years, the production and distribution of energy in Tanzania has faced enormous challenges including capacity shortages, lack of private investments, and low level of reliability of the power supply. In the entire country, around 29 percent of households were connected to electricity.
Despite of the ongoing situation, a round close survey by the Afro-Economist has discovered that, electricity users in the country have felt a severe pinch with some have blamed the government for poor performances.
The survey has shown that for the last four months now residents including business people trading in Tanzania’s largest commercial city of Dar es Salaam have been grappling with unprecedented electricity crisis living them parched and frustrated in the face of soaring demands.
Despite rising temperature, most people residing along the coast are in great need of cold waters to quench their thirst, but this is rarely seen as the available number of electricity amount is not enough to make refrigerators work effectively.
With the current crisis that has plunged the nation, the government has taken other steps in a move to waive out the challenge. Two months ago, it partnered with international investors to grab the energy sector to meet its energy demands and enhance its energy infrastructure.
The move by the government is currently planning to increase a conducive and favourable investment environment in the energy sector to stimulate the stagnated economic development.
Industrial owners face a significant challenge of insufficient and unreliable electricity supply to their production plants.
This is due to critical power woes which has paralyzed economic activities in almost many parts. A power outage may disrupt number of industrial production
The government has partnered with Chinese investors to grab the energy sector to meet its energy demands and enhance its energy infrastructure.
The energy shortage also affects the semi-autonomous territory and tourist hotspot Zanzibar, which is heavily reliant on the mainland Tanzania for its electricity generation and supply.
Both Unguja and Pemba are completely reliant on power purchased from TANESCO through submarine cables of 100 MW and 25 MW capacity, respectively.
Zanzibar lacks its own power generation facilities, and electricity is supplied from mainland Tanzania by the 132kV undersea cable. The cable has reliability and maintenance challenges sometimes plunging the entire Island into a total power blackout.
As a partial mitigation against this risk, Zanzibar Electricity Company (ZECO) maintains 25MW of grid-connected high-speed back-up diesel generators. Most hotels, offices, industries, and various private sector consumers have their own captive emergency diesel generators to supplement in situations of power outage.
However, the cost of maintaining these is high and their constant emission of poisonous fumes during operation is dangerous to the environment.
Currently, the Indian Ocean semi-autonomous archipelagos receives lower power units of about 130 Megawatts from the Mainland’s Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) which has a total 1,605.86 Megawatts of electricity supply.
In September 2023, President Samia Suluhu issued a six-month ultimatum to National Power Utility firm (TANESCO) to ensure that power rationing in the country comes to an end in March this year.
