Tanzania hails arrival of emergency generator

Major English newspapers in Tanzania on Sunday hailed the arrival of parts of an emergency generator that was expected to help the country come out of current power crisis.

All the English dailies used their first pages to report the arrival of the natural gas-fired generator.

Sunday Citizen quoted Richmond Development Company Country Manager Naeem Gire as saying: "These are just parts of the generator, the rest will be flown in next week and will supply 20 megawatts electricity."

Sunday News said that it might take two to three weeks to assemble the turbine-driven generator.

The United States-based Richmond Development Company won a tender from the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco), Tanzania's sole electricity supplier, to deliver in phases leased gas-fired turbines with a total capacity of 100 megawatts.

The Tanzanian government and Tanesco are striving to purchase or lease natural gas-fired turbine-driven generators in that the country's power grid lacks 240 megawatts or about half of the country's normal electricity consumption.

The deficiency is caused by lack of reservoir water at the country's hydropower dams.

Lack of rain waters in the past rainy season has caused the water level to drop and the country's key hydropower dams of Mtera and Kidatu have been shut down completely twice in the last eight months.

Source: Xinhua