250,000 new customers in Tanesco action plan
- Published on Monday, 23 February 2015 07:26
- Written by ROSE ATHUMANI
-
THE Tanzania Electric Supply Company
(TANESCO) plans to connect 250,000 new customers with electricity this
year, promising better and improved services to the public.
In an exclusive with the ‘Daily News’,
the utility firm’s Managing Director, Mr Felchesmi Mramba, has told the
‘Daily News’ that its customer base has been increasing from 700,000 in
2011 to 1.4 million in 2014.
He attributed the increase to better and
improved services and Strategies that has been put in place by the
Ministry of Energy and Minerals and the state-run utility company.
He added that the increase was also due
to reduction of connectivity charges and more efforts in the Rural
Energy Agency (REA), which has seen more connected to electricity in
rural areas.
Mr Mramba promised the public of more
improved services from a number of restructuring exercises going on
within the utility firm, which will be reflected in the services that
will be provided.
He said this year will bring remarkable
changes as a number of big natural gas pipeline projects in Kinyerezi
come to completion, stressing that electricity woes will be a thing of
the past for the public and the country’s economy will grow at a faster
rate.
The Kinyerezi projects include Kinyerezi
I; a 150MW plant project, which is a dual fuel and gas plant. This
means that if it is completed before natural gas starts flowing, the
government might start by using fuel.
The Kinyerezi II, a 240MW combined cycle
project, Kinyerezi 3, which is a joint project with China’s Shanghai
Electricity Power Company, which will have 60 per cent, while TANESCO
will have 40 per cent of the share.
There is also Kinyerezi IV, another
joint venture with a Chinese company that will enable generation of
330MW, while other projects are in Mtwara, which include a 400-600MW
project, a joint venture with a US company, Symbion.
Meanwhile the firm is holding talks with
development partners to release over 150 US million dollars that were
withheld pending the Escrow Tegeta scandal.
“I cannot say when they will release the
funds; but we are in talks with the development partners and are
hopeful that they will release the funds, which will go a long way
towards solving challenges that TANESCO is facing,” Mr Mramba explained.
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