Tanesco blames blackouts on fault at city power substation

Dar es Salaam. Some city suburbs were plunged into darkness over the weekend due to a serious breakdown at the Ubungo power substation.

The blackout comes barely two weeks after the introduction of new, higher power tariffs, thus forcing consumers to dig deeper into their pockets to meet their energy needs.

Domestic and industrial consumers have been raising serious questions over the chronic erratic electricity supply.

The Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) approved an increase of power tariffs by 40 per cent effective January 1, this year.

Some areas of the city also lacked power supply for up to 12 hours the whole of last week due to what the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) called repairs of transmission lines.

Efforts to reach Tanesco’s Public Relations manager Badra Masoud to explain the blackout proved futile as she was not taking calls.

Tanesco’s managing director Felchesmi Mramba, who had just arrived back to the country, admitted that there was a serious problem and said the company’s technicians were working around the clock to fix it and that power was expected back by yesterday.

“I was outside the country for the past four days but I’m told there was a serious breakdown at Ubungo substation since yesterday (Saturday).... I’m told efforts to restore the situation are going on well and hopefully today (Sunday) the situation will return to normal,” Mr Mramba told The Citizen in a telephone interview.

A spot check by The Citizen established that residents of almost half the city were left without power for most part of Saturday and Sunday.

The weekend’s outage comes just four months after most parts of Dar es Salaam went without power for about two weeks after one of the Ubungo power substations was hit by a fire.