Browsing: Access to electricity

• Activation of Julius Nyerere Hydropower Plant (JNHPP) turbines increase output.
• Authorities say a national renovation of power infrastructure is underway.
• Minor outages persist in several regions due to ongoing maintenance.

Tanzania electricity supply has seen a significant increase, with the country now enjoying surplus power output as the current generation capacity reaches 2,152 megawatts (MW), well above the total demand of 1,683MW. This increase in capacity is attributed to the activation of three turbines at the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Plant (JNHPP). That plant alone is projected to produce some 2,115 MW when fully operational.

This remarkable turnaround comes less than a year after Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu dissolved the entire Tanesco board following persistent blackouts caused by low water levels in dams due to drought and delays in power plant maintenance.

Speaking to the press in the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s Deputy Prime Minister Dr. …

• Africa’s low electricity access stresses the need to double more than the efforts to meet SGD 7.1 by 2030.
• In Kenya, data by the lender shows 71 per cent of the population had access to electricity in 2021, compared to about 14 per cent in 2000.
• World Bank further identifies a stark divide in global access to electricity between urban and rural areas.

Sub-Saharan African states have made tremendous progress in electricity access in the past two decades, with the access rate rising from 25 per cent in 2000 to 48 per cent in 2020.

However, according to the World Bank, countries must double their electrification efforts to bring electricity to all by 2030, meeting Sustainable Development Goal Seven.

“Global access to electricity is increasing at a slow pace, with the progress towards achieving universal access to electricity being slow over the last 20 years,” …