Detailed discussions are underway on the
project of selling electricity to Kenya
to relieve the neighboring country's power
crisis, said Tanzanian energy officials
on Tuesday.
Senior officials from Kenya
in the power sector started a three-day
meeting in Tanzania on Monday with their
Tanzanian counterparts to chart out the
final scope of the transmission lines and
substations for the Arusha-Nairobi interconnector
project.
The U.S. multimillion-dollar plan
is expected to erect a 360-km transmission
line of 220 kV from Arusha, northern Tanzania,
to the Kenyan capital Nairobi, local newspaper
Daily News reported on Tuesday, citing Patrik
Rutabanzibwa, the permanent secretary of
the Tanzanian Energy and Mineral Ministry.
Rutabanzibwa was quoted as saying that some
of the townships would benefit from the
project are Ibisil, Kajiado, Isinya and
Kitengule on the Kenyan side of border and
Oldonyo Sambu, Longido and Namanga in Tanzania.
The Kenyan government earlier made a request
to the Tanzanian side to purchase power
due to the undergoing electricity shortage,
and last April, when the two parties met
in Nairobi, Tanzania agreed to sell 200
MW to Kenya when the project was completed.
The Tanzanian government boasts ample power-generating
sources but so far about 90% of its rural
population and 30% of its urban residents
in the east African country do not yet have
access to reliable and affordable electricity.
Experts said having an overseas market would
help Tanzania's power supplier ease the
burden of a fixed capacity charge of over
US$8 million being paid to the country's
power producers monthly.
They said the project
of interconnecting Tanzania with neighboring
countries would eventually lower the generation,
distribution, and transmission costs per
unit.
According to the Tanzanian Energy
and Mineral Ministry, under the South African
Pool project for connecting various countries
of Southern Africa Development Community,
which had been designed to generate 8544
MW from various sources of electricity by
the year 2010, there was a plan to interconnect
Tanzania with Kenya and Zambia on power
supply.
