Work begins to connect Nyerere Hydropower plant to Tanzania's national grid

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd (Tanesco) has started connecting the Julius Nyerere Hydropower plant (JNHPP) to the national grid and subsequently move on with trials.

The 10-day work began on December 1, 2023, involving the connecting the dam with the Chalinze power station that will receive JNHPP electricity before connecting it to the national grid, according to a statement issued by Tanesco.

"When this work is completed, it will make it possible to connect electricity from the grid to the JNHPP generators for trials," Tanesco said.

Connecting the dam with the national grid is a milestone for Tanesco which said the work has begun a month earlier than the schedule.

The work was planned to take place at the end of December 2023, but the increased speed of implementation of the power project has enabled the tests to start earlier.

Tanesco cautioned that some areas connected to the national grid will be affected by power cut during the period of trials as some machines will be shut down occasionally.

"The start of this work is one of the completion stages in the construction of the dam which will help to reduce and eventually eliminate the power rationing," Tanesco stated.

After the completion of the work, the following step will be to connect the station with the electricity transmission line from Luguruni, Dar es Salaam to Morogoro.

Tanesco will also connect the station with the electricity transmission line from Chalinze to Ubungo Dar es Salaam, and finally the electricity transmission line from Chalinze to Tanga.

Completion of all these steps will result in the station being ready to receive and feed the electricity from the JNHPP into the national grid.

Most parts of Tanzania have been experiencing power rationing since October due to drough which affected hydropower sources.

Tanesco is expecting to address the challenges through the new dam which is expected to generate 2,115 megawatts.