DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 5 (NNN-DAILYNEWS) — THE Tanzanian government is on Feb 15 expected to sign an agreement of a project dubbed ‘Grid Imara’ worth about 1tri/- to restructure and stabilise the electricity situation in the country, Energy Minister January Makamba informed the National Assembly.
Moreover, the government is planning to carry out maintenance of the national grid to tackle power outages problems in many parts of the country. Makamba revealed this while contributing implementation report of the Parliamentary Committee for Energy and Minerals for the past one year.
“The project will involve 26 components and this will be a road to end the problem of electricity infrastructure as well as increase power generation in the country,” said Makamba.
According to him, the project will, among other things, help to remove the existing gap in the supply and transmission of electricity in the country.
Elaborating on the issue of power outages, he indicated that the big challenge leading to the problem is dilapidated infrastructure.
“The available infrastructure for transporting and supplying electricity is dilapidated…the infrastructure does not cater for the existing demand and its maintenance has not been done for quite some time now,” noted the minister.
Presenting the committee’s report, Deputy Chairman, Seif Gulamali who is also a Member of Parliament for Manonga (CCM) indicated that the electricity demand in the national grid has continued to 1,391.65 megawatts as of Jan 17, this year from 1,324.12 megawatts indicated last year showing an increase of 5.1 percent.
Besides, the committee also noted the unsatisfactory trend of the electricity situation in the country, citing power outages recorded in the many parts of the country recorded August, last year.
Gulamali pointed out that the ministry has cited the problem of drought which has caused drying up of water sources hampering hydro-power generation to operate below the required levels.
Likewise, he noted the shortage of natural gas which can operate power plants and dilapidated infrastructure for generation, transmission and supply of electricity.
Based on the above challenges, the committee advised the government to take immediate steps to tackle the problem including the use of natural gas and encouraging power generation by using renewable energy.
“Taking into account that the many projects which have been outlined in the third National Five-Year Development Plan and the CCM Manifesto are still underway, major steps should be taken to solve the problem…the impacts of power cuts to the economy are very huge,” he said.
