Tanzanian Power Transmission Project Part of Southern African Power Pool Plan

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Cooperation between East African and Southern African countries involving transportation infrastructure, oil refining and petroleum products, water utilization, and power supplies has been inching forward in the past three years. Tanzania has begun construction on a project that will create a 667-kilometer power transmission line to link existing and planned power generation projects in the south and with the tourism, transportation and mining industries in the north of the country.

The 400-kilovolt line will form a backbone for further developments in the transmission and distribution of power and will form a part of the linkage for the power pools in southern and East Africa, which is scheduled to go into operation in 2012. The pool will include the Tanzania-Zambia link and could be linked to the proposed Zambia-Namibia connection and other countries in central West Africa such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The regions covered are resource-rich but lack power. The linkages are aimed at increasing output and making energy more available and less expensive. All the countries in the region, including South Africa, are looking to fast track power and transport infrastructure projects to benefit from the renewed, upward demand for commodities and resources from the mines and ore exports and from local ore beneficiation projects.

The Tanzanian power transmission backbone will stretch from Iringa to Shinyanga, with a 217-kilometer stretch between Dodoma and Singida that will be funded through the African Development Bank and Japan's International Cooperation Agency, each of which will contribute $100 million. The overall project will receive further financial assistance in the form of a $725,000 loan co-financed by the ADB and the Japanese through the Enhanced Private Sector Initiative for Africa.

The European Union will contribute $800 million to the project through a consortium of financiers, including a European Investment Bank loan of $100 million and perhaps an additional loan for the connection project between Zambia and Namibia. Other funders to the project will include the International Development Association (World Bank) with $150 million, and the Export Bank of Korea with $36.4 million. In support of the Millennium Development Goals Japan provided $1 billion to African projects between 2005 and 2010 and will continue to provide major funding support to projects helping mitigate climate change.

The Tanzanian project will be sectioned into four lots for funding purposes. These will be the 225-kilometer double-circuit line between Iringa and Dodoma, a 217-kilometer double-circuit line between Iringa and Dodoma, a 225-kilometer line between Singida and Shinyanga, and a link between Iringa, Singida and Shinyanga.

At a recent meeting of power pool participants in Nairobi, Kenya, the East African Community general secretary, Juma Mwapachu, said that the trade blocs will focus on improving the region's transport system, in addition to the power sector, as this was also a major component of the high cost of doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa. He said that the World Bank had estimated that Africa needs to invest $93 billion per year in infrastructure through 2020 and that 70% of this should go to energy .He added that the private sector would have to be engaged with governments in this development push. In April 2010, the World Bank estimated that only $45 billion per year was being invested in African infrastructure projects.

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