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10 more days of long power cuts
2006-02-28 08:43:17
By Pascal Shao
Prime Minister Edward Lowassa has appealed to Tanzanians to be patient as engineers work to restore normal supply at the Songas gas-to-electricity generation plant.
The Premier made the call yesterday during a tour of the Songas plant at Ubungo, Dar es Salaam, to assess the progress of repair work of a faulty transformer.
’The transformer broke down last week, but could not be repaired as there were no spare parts. Now the parts have been acquired and the problem will be fixed by Wednesday,’ the Premier said.
Lowassa pleaded with consumers to be patient because ’the work is being undertaken by human beings.’
He expressed hope that the problem would be fixed by March 10 and restore electricity supply to normalcy.
The Premier said that the transformer is new but since it broke down before the expiry of the period it had been guaranteed, Songas would be compensated for the damage.
The technical fault in one of the transformers at the Ubungo gas-to-electricity power plant resulted in increased power rationing by more than four hours, in addition to the 12-hour schedule that had been announced by the Tanzania National Electric Supply Company (Tanesco).
The breakdown led to 80 megawatts being shedded from the national grid.
Songas Managing Director Paul Kunert said the fault has been diagnosed and the necessary spare part had already been manufactured by the GE Prolec company of Mexico.
’Installation will take one or two days,’ Kunert said.
He said that the blame over the faulty transformer lay with the manufacturer and Songas had called in GE engineers to help diagnose and fix the problem.
Commenting on inconveniences caused by power rationing, Minister for Energy and Minerals Dr Ibrahim Msabaha said that consumer complaints over the erratic power-rationing schedule were genuine.
He said he had taken up the issue with the Tanesco management, which he said had promised to look into the matter.
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