Dar on brink of darkness as power crisis deepens

The energy crisis engulfing Tanzania deepened last week, as it emerged that East Africa’s second biggest economy is operating on a depleted electricity reserve that could throw it into darkness in case of an outage.

In coming weeks, authorities plan to shut down major hydro plants, the main source of power due to falling water levels.

The country’s power generation system encompasses the use of hydro, thermal and gas power.

The interconnected grid has an installed capacity of 773MW, of which 71 per cent is hydropower.

The largest hydropower complexes are the Mtera and Kidatu Dams situated on the Great Ruaha River.

Currently, the area (Ruaha and Ihefu) has been hit by a severe drought, which has greatly affected the generation of hydropower.

Manufacturers are already staring at major revenue losses that could in turn pile pressure on prices of key commodities.

Tanzania Meteorological Agency acting director general Agnes Kijazi told The EastAfrican last week that there were no foreseeable rains in the coming months, especially in the central and southeastern zone of the country where the major hydropower generation plants are based.

Industrial losses

The ongoing power rationing is expected to cost manufacturers over $5 million (Tsh7.7 billion) and a two per cent slump in output in the agricultural sector.

The government will also lose $1.5 million (Tsh2.3 billion) in taxes.

Hydropower generation plants in total produce 561 Megawatts when in full operation but they are now contributing 180MW only to the national grid; worse, the water level is dropping rapidly, with concerns at Mtera Dam in Dodoma where the level is dropping 3cm every day, and is only 1.38m above the minimum level required to run the turbines.

State-run power utility Tanzania Electric Supply Company— which is currently generating just two-thirds of the nation’s total energy demand — imposed power cuts in December after a shortage of natural gas supply to turbines led to a 40MW deficit on the national grid.

Power rationing was expected to end in January, but drought at hydropower stations has now pushed up the power deficit to 230MW.

Tanesco acting managing director Felchesmi Mramba told The EastAfrican in Dar es Salaam last week that the energy firm was striving to ease the problem by buying fuel to run the Independent Power Tanzania Ltd (IPTL) diesel generators in Tegeta in Dar es Salaam.