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Power rationing starts today
2006-02-02 08:44:00
By Patrick Kisembo
Power rationing starts today following a severe drought that has led to critically lower water levels in the Mtera Dam.
Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Dr Ibrahim Msabaha, said the government had arrived at the decision to cope with the situation.
’’The situation of electricity in the country is critical because of the severe drought that has reduced the quantity of water in the dams that generate electricity,’’ Msabaha said.
He said every dam was operating below capacity, making it impossible to maintain normal levels of power generation.
’’The prime minister visited Mtera Dam and directed that three metres below the minimum level of 690 metres be used to produce electricity in the hope that rain would start soon.
’’From this situation, we have been obliged to start limited load shedding in the whole country for at least eight hours, for the purpose of extending the usage of Mtera Dam,’’ Dr Msabaha said.
He said that, if people used little power, it would also reduce the use of water in the dams.
Tanesco had finalised its discussion with Songas to produce more electricity at Ubungo to hedge against the imminent outages, he added.
’’We have also decided to step up electricity production at Tegeta to about 45MW, and Kiwira dam, which is expected to produce 200MW.’’
Dr Msabaha said that there would be no load shedding at night for security reasons.
Tanesco Managing Director, Adrian Van Der Merwe said key consumers, including hospitals, clinics, key government facilities and a few industries will be excluded from the load-shedding schedule.
He said that the load shedding is meant to extend power generation to mid March when the rainy season starts.
He, however, warned: ’’Further delay to load shedding will lead to total shutdown of Mtera dam as its water level is at a critical point of 687.6 metres.
In a proposed load shedding, Dar es Salaam alone will lower consumption by 35MW while other regions will shed 25MW, thereby easing demand by 60MW on the national grid.
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