US TEAM TO HELP RESTORE POWER

A GROUP of technicians from the US multinational General Electric (GE) are expected to arrive in Dar es Salaam today to fix the grounded Songas generators that have led to power rationing in the country, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr William Ngeleja, has said. Mr Ngeleja told the 'Daily News' yesterday in Dar es Salaam that the Songas generators which used to generate180MW were now generating just over a third of it capacity (a mere 74MW). He said that three of the six generators at the Songas plant in Dar es Salaam could not work properly and GE’s technicians have advised the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) to stop them until the damage was examined. “People should understand that what happened is not a total failure of the generators but rather there were technical problems that forced the authorities to switch off the generators,” Mr Ngeleja said. He said that Songas had been working with GE from the initial stages of generator installations and that they were (GE) the ones to consult in case of any technical problems with their generators. Mr Ngeleja said that the ministry was vigilant in ensuring that power rationing was carefully handled to reduce unnecessary inconveniences to consumers, and assured Dar es Salaam residents that the city would not be affected by the exercise. He said that the ministry has decided to schedule the power rationing during night hours to give room to economic activities to take place uninterruptedly. The minister said that Tanesco does not depend on Songas’s 180-megawatt on daily basis but rather the demand differs from time to time. Tanesco started a countrywide power rationing effective Wednesday night following an abrupt breakdown of three generators at the Songas plant in Dar es Salaam. According to Tanesco, despite all efforts to stem the deficit through the use of natural gas and hydroelectric plants, the shortfall would remain, therefore, necessitating a daily 40-megawatt load shedding from 6:00pm to 11:00pm.