Tanesco: We plan to connect power to 0.5m Dar customers

Dar es Salaam. The state power utility firm, Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanseco), is planning to connect about half a million new customers in Dar es Salaam alone, thanks to a number of new projects that are nearing completion.

The new customers will be connected under the Urban Electrification Programme to be implemented in three years from 2016 in a move to make quick return on investment in the projects and increase the number of people with access to electricity.

Currently, about 24 per cent of the Mainland Tanzanian population is connected with the  service of which 7 per cent are rural dwellers with the demand for electricity on average growing between 10 per cent and 15 per cent per year.

Speaking during a day-long journalists’ tour to various power plants in Dar es Salaam, Tanesco executive director Felchesmi Mramba said that the new customers will benefit from the low cost power supply generated from natural gas.

“As we complete these projects we are also preparing other projects to make sure we get new people connected constantly. We will look for companies which will build the infrastructure and take connection orders. So far we have done the GPS survey to establish the exact number to start with, especially in Dar es Salaam. “We have to do this so as to know exactly the number of people we can serve, so that we do it well,” he said. The projects that will also provide employment opportunities to more than 200 Tanzanians will also reduce the frequent power cuts in most parts of the country, he said.

He added that the project would also embrace a new system which will make it hard for people to temper with metres which will now be centrally monitored. “This project will ensure there is reliable power supply as well also have standby transformers that were not there in the past. We have also created the ring circuit system that will enable sharing of power in case one area has a connection failure,”he added.