THE government has saved 23.5bn/- after switching from heavy fuel oil plants since last year, Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO), Director General Dr Tito Mwinuka has revealed.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday on the progress registered by Tanesco in four years of the fifth phase government, Dr Mwinuka said the power utility company has invested the saved money in the improvement and development of infrastructures, transmission and supply among others.
“We have been phasing out the use of fuel oil power plant and that has made us save 23.5bn/- and we expect that every year, after switching from that source of fuel, we’ll continue saving the same amount of money,” said Dr Mwinuka.
He said the move has also helped the state-run power utility firm to run their own projects and pay suppliers on time without relying on government subsidies.
Dr Mwinuka told reporters that the firm has increased revenue collection from 1.2tr/- a year in 2012/13 to 1.53tr/- last year.
He attributed the rise in revenue to increased number of customers from 1,648,386 metres in 2015 to 2,782,682 in December last year which is a 66.4 per cent increase.
As for infrastructure expansion, Dr Mwinuka said they have taken a number of projects including expansion of the Transmission Line, the main grid with use of 220 – 400 kV lines.
He outlined a number of projects which have been undertaken in four years as Kinyerezi I and II natural gas power projects, construction of transmission lines of between 66Kv to 400KV in improving electricity availability countrywide now that the country gears towards an industrial economy.
As for transformers, he said in 2015 there were 13,194 whereas as of December 2019 the number increased by 68.9 per cent reaching 22,288 transformers installed.
“We have also upgraded a number of substations in a number of areas which are being carried out with our own resources with an exception of strategic power projects which are funded by the government,” he said.
