Zanzibar: Own Power Generation To Avoid High Costs and Dependency
The government of Zanzibar plans to generate its own power, as it considers the bill from the Tanzanian power utility rather high. Generating its own power will avoid power dependence and the possibility of being disconnected from power, which the power supply company has threatened to do and has done so in the past.
Below is an article published by AllAfrica
The Zanzibar government plans to generate its own power to avoid dependency on Tanzania Mainland. Apart from power dependency Zanzibar also thinks the power bill from the Tanzania power utility, Tanzania Electric Power Supply Company (Tanesco) is on the higher side.
Currently, Tanesco charges Zanzibar an average monthly power bill of Tsh 5 billion ($ 3 million) which the Zanzibar authorities argue is on the higher side. The Zanzibar Deputy Permanent Secretary, in the Ministry of Energy, Mustapha Aboud Jumbe Mwinyi said power dependency on the Mainland affects the speed of the Isles development.
Apart from power dependency, threats made by Tanesco to disconnect power for Zanzibar also remain a source of frustration. Jumbe said that Zanzibar (Unguja) gets power through Ras Kilomoni connected to the Mainland while another island, Pemba gets power from Tanga also connected to mainland Tanzania.
According to Tanesco by January this year [2014] Zanzibar owed Tanesco to the tune of Tsh 70 billion ($41.2 million). However the power bill is being disputed by the Zanzibar government through its power company, Zanzibar Electric Company Limited (Zeco). Zanzibar says the bill stood at Tsh 44 billion ($25.8 million). The dispute has resulted in a joint meeting of the two boards of directors (Tanesco/Zeco) and about Tsh 18 billion ($10.6 million) which has to be paid as an advance payment.
Still in the Zanzibari memory is the three months power blackout in 2009-2010. The three month long blackout that hit Zanzibar caused an economic and social depression that affected almost every sector. In 2008, electricity to Zanzibar (Unguja) was provided from Mainland Tanzania through an old singe 132 kV submarine cable connection with a capacity of 45 MW.
As the cable had been in operation since 1980 it was of old age and fully utilised, and decisions were taken to supply the island with an additional submarine cable of 100 MW. In Pemba decisions were taken to install a submarine cable, although of smaller capacity (20 MW), this is enough for Pemba-at least for now. This new power supply in Pemba replaced power deliveries from diesel generators of very low standard.
Photo by Flickr © Jeffrey Zabinski
