BY FELISTER PETER
29th October 2014
While in Dar es Salaam, US Treasury Secretary Lew met with Tanzania’s Finance Minister, Saada Mkuya, among other high ranking officials. He visited the Dar port (General Cargo Terminal berths 1-7), Kurasini Oil Jetty (KOJ) and chaired a business roundtable meeting.He arrived in the country yesterday from Egypt and is expected to visit South Africa next.
The development comes as the government reaffirms commitment to improve power supply nationwide under its ambitious Big Results Now (BRN) plan backed by support from the African Development Bank (ADB) and the US government through the Power Africa initiative.
Briefing press yesterday in the city shortly after the US Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew, visited the ‘Electricity V’ project, Innocent Luoga, Assistant Commissioner for Energy from the Ministry of Energy and Minerals said the project, when completed will connect at least 12,000 new customers to the supply grid.
The ‘Electricity V’ project, covers expansion and construction of at least one control room at the Sokoine sub-station in Ilala District.
Current distribution capacity at the sub-station stands at 15 MVA, after completion of the expansion project, the capacity is expected to double to 30 MVA. Similar projects will be implemented in Mwanza, Shinyanga and Njiro in Arusha.
Luoga announced that up to 40 per cent of the work is completed and projected that the expansion and construction works at Sokoine sub-station will be completed by June of next year.
He said ADB has already injected USD 50 million to the project which currently provides electricity to 3,000 customers including 400 commercial customers and once completed, the project will secure reliable power distribution for the State House and the Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI) as well as the surrounding areas.
ADB Resident Representative, Tonia Kandiero said more than generating electricity, the country needs a stable transmission system.
“ADB decided to fund the project to support the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) meet and capture unsatisfied electricity demand and provide wider access to the service,” she said.
On his part, Commissioner Luoga noted that the ongoing upgrading of power sub-stations in the country are partly supported by the US government through the Power Africa project launched last year by US President, Barrack Obama.
Power Africa is geared at improving the country’s energy sector through transaction assistant for priority generation projects, technical advice and capacity building for key institutions.
The private sector-led initiative aims at doubling electricity access across Sub-Saharan Africa where more than 600 million people have no access to electricity.
Luoga said the ongoing construction projects in Shinyanga and Mwanza will see a total of 900 new customers connected with electricity service.
He pointed out that similar projects are being implemented at the city center, Kurasini, Gongolamboto, Mkuranga, Mbagala, Ubungo, Mbezi and Masaki.
“We are aiming to become a middle income country by 2015, this cannot be attained if we don’t have reliable power services…distribution is a very crucial component because once electricity is generated it must be distributed to the consumers,” Luoga explained.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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