Tanzania Natural Gas Shortage Hits Power Generation

A natural gas supply shortage has hampered power generation at Tanzania's gas-fired plants in Dar Es Salaam, causing a deficit of at least 40 megawatts on the national grid, the state power utility announced Monday.

According to Tanzania Electric Supply Company or Tanesco, natural gas supply from the Songo Songo gas field off the Tanzanian coast to power plants on the mainland was disrupted over the weekend.
"We expect power rationing to continue until mid-January," said Tanesco spokeswoman Badra Masoud."Maintenance works at one of the gas wells at Songo Songo field are ongoing and this has disrupted gas supplies," she added.

Tanzania, Africa's fourth-largest gold and coffee producer, relies on gas-fired power plants for the generation of at least 300 MW of its power.

There are five gas wells at the Songo Songo gas field.
According to Masoud, in a bid to balance demand and supply Tanesco has started imposing power cuts for at least 10 hours a day in most parts of the country.

In recent years Tanzania has been shifting from hydropower to natural gas plants following the discovery of substantial gas reserves.
The country has also been struggling to increase electricity generation to meet rising demand, mainly from the mining, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

Earlier this month Tanzania suffered multiple failures at various power plants, which forced it to impose power cuts in at least 15 regions.
By the end of last week, a number of generation units had been repaired before the country suffered another setback.
The power failures have been blamed on obsolete equipment amid a lack of investment.

Last week, Tanzania's power regulator cleared Tanesco to increase power tariffs by an average of at least 18% in a bid to boost revenues and maintain existing infrastructure.