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Power cuts to bite more
2006-02-15 07:57:05
By Juma Thomas, Dodoma
The government announced yesterday a major load shedding schedule to save the power supply system from total collapse.
The revised schedule comes into effect today and will cover the entire country.
The new schedule comes at a time when some parts of the country are said to be already experiencing rationing for more than 12 hours.
The Minister for Energy and Mineral, Dr Ibrahim Msabaha, told the House that the purpose of the new power-rationing timetable was to save an average of 120 megawatts on the national grid.
Dr Msabaha, who was clarifying the government’s position on power generation, said the water level at the Mtera Dam had reached 687.35 metres and to save the power system from total collapse, the government had decided to increase power-rationing hours on the recommendations of Tanesco.
Under the major power rationing schedule, domestic consumers, businesses and offices located in residential areas would go without power for 12 hours from 7am to 7pm daily, except on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
On these days power will be rationed from 2pm to 7pm.
The minister said major industries, sensitive areas, major hospitals, banks and TRA offices will not be affected by new load shedding schedule.
The intention, the minister said, was to allow production to continue in these areas.
Kahama Gold Mine and Mwadui Resolute will not be affected.
The minister said that other gold mines such as Geita, generate their own power, hence they are not affected by rationing.
He said that offices and industries get low power voltage in downtown Dar es Salaam because of defective transformers at Ilala and would continue to suffer until a new transformer being installed becomes operational.
The minister said the transformer was bought in India and installation work had already started.
’We hope it will be ready by next month,’ he said.The minister said the government had directed every region to reduce power consumption by 50 per cent.
He said that leading industries that contribute significantly to national income would not be affected by the power rationing.
Dr Msabaha said the government had taken a number of steps to reduce the impact of acute power shortage.
These include buying gas power generators with 60-100 megawatts capacity that will be installed at Ubungo and Ilala.
He also said the government was aware of the difficulties wananchi were experiencing as a result of power rationing, adding that precautions had been taken to reduce its severity.
The government announced power rationing on February 4 in the hope that the water level in Mtera dam and other dams would increase with the start of the long rains.
The initial power-rationing schedule was to save 60 megawatts. It covered 17 hours of rationing – eight-and-half hours in the morning and eight-and-half hours in the evening.
The water level in Mtera and other dams, however, has been on the decline, necessitating a revision of the timetable.
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