Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited

Predecessor

Electricity was first introduced in Tanzania (Tanganyika) in 1908 by the German colonial authorities in Dar-es-salaam. After the British mandate was established a Government electricity department was formed and took over energy generation and transmission in the colony. In 1931 electricity was handed to two private companies, Tanganyika Electric Supply Company Ltd. (Tanesco) and Dar es Salaam and District Electric Supply Company Ltd (Danesco).

Commercial operations for Tanesco began in 1933 with the first diesel generator in the Tanga Region. The first dam was completed in 1936 on the Pangani River. By 1959 the total capacity was 17.5 MW and the company had 400 km of supply lines. On 12 February 1948 Tanesco secured the contract to sell surplus power from the hydro dam to Mombasa.

Post independence

At independence (1961) the government acquired some shares from both of the utilities. However, with Tanzania's economic policy shifting towards Ujamaa, by 1975 the government acquired all the shares and merged the two utilities to form a state own utility called the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd. From 1975 the firm responsible for generating, transmitting and distributing power on the mainland. Furthermore, Tanesco is also responsible in selling bulk electricity to Zanzibar based ZECO Electric Company.

Reform

The government liberalised private sector investment in electricity generation in 1992. In 2002 as part of the Companies Act, 2002 of Tanzania, Tanesco was incorporated as a limited liability company; however all its shares were still held by the government. Due to the high dependence on Hydroelectric dams and poor hydrology between 2005 and 2008, Tanesco lead to the procurement of their first Emergency Power Project (EPP). The first EPP was the expansion of the Ubungo Power Station with Songas. From 2011 to 2013 TANESCO experienced a shortage of power generation due to poor hydrology and again procurement of costly EPPs was then undertaken. By the end of 2016, TANESCO sought an increase by 8.53 percent of the energy tariff, due to its difficult financial situation. In 2017, The president John Magufuli, dismissed the raise firing the director manager of TANESCO Felchesmi Mramba.

TANESCO's core business are: to generate, transmit, distribute and supply electricity in Tanzanian mainland and sell bulk power to Zanzibar.

The following is the overview of Tanesco's operations As of March 2015:

Generation capacity in the interconnected grid system:

Total hydro power: 561 MW