Enough of empty talk on electricity, say MPs

The time for promises, explanations and excuses for the longstanding power problems is over, MPs told the government yesterday. Speaking during a seminar for MPs organised by the Energy and Minerals ministry, parliamentarians said the government should immediately accord the crisis the urgency it deserves.

They made this observation even as Energy minister William Ngeleja promised that electricity rationing would ease this week when Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) starts supplying an additional 90MW into the national grid.

IPTL currently generates about 10MW of its installed capacity of 100MW, but Mr Ngeleja told journalists the Treasury had released funds for the purchase of more fuel that would enable the company to operate at full capacity.

Earlier during the seminar on the state of electricity generation, MPs told the government that Tanzanians were fed up with “explanations, excuses, theories, promises and grandiose plans”, adding that what they wanted was reliable power supply.

“We’re not interested in your PowerPoint presentations or grand-sounding plans. What we want is electricity and we want it now! Your expertise or your education is useless to us if you cannot find ways to solve the power problems once and for all,” Mr George Simbachawene (Kibakwe-CCM) told experts from Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco), who made presentations during the seminar.

Mr Simbachawene accused Mr Ngeleja of having done nothing to improve power generation since he was given the energy portfolio three years ago.

Briefing reporters earlier, Mr Ngeleja could not state by how many hours rationing would be reduced, or even say when IPTL would switch on the rest of its generators.  He said Tanesco would issue more information any time from today.

“What I can tell you is that by August, this year, we expect to increase power production through Symbion from the current 80MW to 112.5 MW, and from Aggreko we expect to get 100MW. This will reduce the shortage that has necessitated rationing,” Mr Ngeleja said.

As usual, the minister mentioned some of the government’s plans to eaddress the crisis in the next few months, saying a 100MW gas plant and 60MW heavy furnace oil generators would be commissioned in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, respectively, before the end of the year, taking the total addition of power to the national grid between now and December to 192.5MW.

However, Tanesco managing director William Mhando said rationing might continue until 2014/15 when power generation would be enough to end load shedding.
“We can only avoid rationing when there is a generation surplus of 15 per cent of installed capacity. We call this the reserve margin or reserve spin margin. We will reach this in the 2014/15 financial year,” he said.

On the state of hydropower generation, Mr Ngeleja told reporters that the water level at the Mtera dam had reached 690.87 metres above sea level by Saturday.  The level is expected to have dropped to the minimum of 690 metres by August, and this will force the shutdown of the Mtera and Kidatu stations, which currently produce 33MW and 40MW, respectively.
“We can only continue generating at these two stations at 688 metres if the government permits us as it did in 2008,” Mr Mhando told MPs.

He added that Tanesco was in talks with the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) to find ways to increase tariffs, which were “too low to meet power generation and supply costs”.
“We are now buying a unit of electricity for 12 US cents, but we are selling at eight US cents only, and to make matters worse, over 70 per cent of our revenue goes into purchasing electricity from companies that provide us only 30 per cent of the total power supplied,” Mr Mhando said.

Mr David Kafulila (Kigoma South-NCCR-Mageuzi) advised the government to revise power purchase agreements with independent power producers (IPPs) so that Tanesco only pays when it does not buy power generated by the companies.  Tanesco currently pays capacity charges even when it buys power from IPPs.  Mr Mhando and Mr Ngeleja said the suggestion would be considered.
“We began revising these capacity charges two years ago, and we are now saving about $1 million (Sh1.5 billion) monthly,” Mr Ngeleja said.

Mr Kafulila also advised the government to charge power contribution fees on mobile phone airtime at the rate of Sh27 per minute, adding that this could earn Tanesco Sh3 trillion in five years. Both the ministry and Tanesco accepted the advice.

Mr Augustine Mrema (Vunjo-TLP) wanted to know why the government had agreed to buy electricity generated by Dowans plants that were bought by Symbion, while the same government refused to allow Tanesco to buy the generators.

“We were told that the plants were in a poor condition, that they were second-hand, and so Tanesco could not buy them, but when the Americans came, they bought the same, and we are now being told that they are in a very good condition and will help the country. Why? What is going on here?” Mr Mrema queried.
Mr Ngeleja appealed to MPs to forget the Dowans issue, saying it was “mired in politics”.

“I was the one who proposed the purchase of the plants to the government at $59.7 million, but that is now history. The good thing is that we can now still buy electricity from the same plants,” Mr Ngeleja said.