United States-based energy company Symbion Power yesterday expressed its readiness to supply the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd (Tanesco) with free power during the initial period of trial runs on its recently acquired Dar es Salaam plant.
Symbion Power CEO Paul Hinks told The Guardian in an exclusive interview in Dar es Salaam that his firm was since last Friday ready to start testing the plant and is only waiting for approval.
He said they hope to get the approval today and thereafter start trial runs on the plant, which is expected to supply the country with additional electricity.
“During the period that we will be testing the equipment online, we will be generating electricity at our own risk - meaning that even before we have an agreement with Tanesco. Power will be provided during this testing phase at no cost from Symbion to them,” he said, adding: “This will be of immediate benefit to Tanzania.”
These developments come as energy stakeholders and government organs overseeing the energy sector trade accusations over the little progress made in the implementation of strategic power projects and exploitation of the energy potential in order to address endless power blues in the country.
Various key actors in the energy sector, including the private firms, are dissatisfied with the slow pace at which Tanesco, the Energy and Minerals ministry have been moving towards finding lasting solutions to the country’s power crisis.
Hinks said their technical services partners, Pro Energy Services, were expected to arrive in Dar es Salaam yesterday while its service engineers were already on site.
He added that his firm was yet to receive a response from Tanesco to their proposal for supplying power to the state-run power utility, noting: “So we assume that they (Tanesco) are still evaluating it.”
He explained that during the trial runs, “we will be supplying power without having any agreement on the matter, so this will be at our own risk and at no cost to Tanesco”.
Symbion last week submitted proposed charges for the sale of electricity to Tanesco. Its Country Director, Christopher Camponovo, told reporters in Morogoro that the charges form part of the Symbion bid opened publicly at Tanesco.
These are 4.99 US cents per kWh using gas and 6.5 US cents per kWh when using jet fuel, both amounts excluding fuel costs and described by Symbion as lower than those charged by Songas and IPTL.
“Our charges are lower than even the cost of Tanesco’s own gas generation in Dar es Salaam and Mtwara,” he said.
Tanesco’s public relations and communication wing later said Tanesco was in talks with Symbion Company on the possible purchase of 112MW from the Symbion plant. The move came with the public furious over the prolonged power problems.
January Makamba, Chairman of the Parliamentary Energy and Minerals Committee, said recently the Energy minister and Tanesco had failed to deliver in the wake of the critical power crisis the country was facing.
Energy minister William Ngeleja explained the situation to the committee, including the progress made in implementing the delayed projects. However, Makamba told The Guardian on Friday that he was far from happy with the minister’s response.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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