Currently, 70% of Tanzanians are able to access the grid power. This is an increase of about 30% within two-years. Furthermore, the 35 million figure is set to rapidly increase with the ongoing rural electrification programs.
Engineer Innocent Luoga, Acting Commissioner for Energy and Petroleum Affairs, further added that electricity access has increased from 40% in 2015 to above 67.5% in 2017. On the other hand, grid power penetration ranges from 97.3% and 49.5% in urban and rural areas respectively.
Commissioner Luoga was addressing the ‘International Conference on Water Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy Future in a Changing Environment,’ (WISE-Future).
Presently, the grid installed capacity is 1263.60MW including 615MW natural gas, 567.7MW Hydropower and 70.4MW and 10.5MW diesel and biomass respectively. This is according to the commissioner. This, he said, is a demonstration of the government’s commitment to developing the energy sector.
The meeting was held at the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST)’s Tengeru Campus, in Arumeru District. ‘WISE-Future,’ Central Director, Dr Hans Komakech pointed out that effects of climate change would stifle ongoing efforts to ensure wide and reliable electricity supply around the globe.
He said more than 600m people within Sub-Sahara Africa still did not have access to grid electricity. This accounts for 46% of all people living without power across the world. Overall, at least 1.3bn people around the globe are still in the dark. Moreover, the global population is now clocking 7.2bn.