A lot of euphoria followed the inauguration of the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Dam (JNHD). In the eyes of many people, this was the panacea for the power outages that have ravaged the country for so long. The JNHD has added 2,115 MW to the national grid, against the current peak demand of 2,199 MW.
Personally, I view this development differently. More megawatts mean little if power cannot be delivered reliably to consumers. To have a reliable power supply, the equation must be balanced with sufficient power generation, robust transmission lines and an elaborate distribution network.
According to EWURA, power outages have been a serious and recurring problem in Tanzania. Whereas insufficient power generation was a major factor contributing to power outages in the past, today, factors such as weak or overloaded transmission infrastructure and ageing, overloaded distribution networks are among the major contributing factors.
On 27 June 2026, a major nationwide grid failure occurred, leaving areas connected to the national grid without electricity. According to TANESCO, this was due to simultaneous faults that occurred on three transmission lines and one generating machine. This illustrates an important distinction: Tanzania’s problem has increasingly shifted from simply having insufficient generating capacity to ensuring that generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure is sufficiently reliable and resilient.
A reliable power supply is the lifeline of any modern society. Dr Akinwumi Adesina, former President of the African Development Bank, said: “Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability.” Now that we have sufficient power generation, we are called upon to balance the equation. Three things need to be done.
The first priority should be to strengthen the national transmission grid. The government must accelerate investment in high-voltage transmission lines, substations, system protection, automatic controls and alternative transmission routes so that the failure of one transmission line or substation does not trigger widespread outages.
Second, Tanzania should embark on a comprehensive modernisation of the distribution network. Many outages experienced by consumers originate not at generating plants but within distribution lines, transformers and local substations. Investment should therefore focus on replacing overloaded and obsolete equipment, strengthening urban distribution networks, expanding automation and introducing modern outage-management systems.
Third and perhaps most importantly, the two measures proposed above cannot be fully implemented by TANESCO as it is currently constituted. I wrote about this in July 2025. The idea of unbundling TANESCO into three autonomous entities – generation, transmission and distribution – should be vigorously pursued, provided that it is carefully designed and implemented.
Separating these functions could improve managerial accountability, focus and financial transparency. A generating company would concentrate on reliable and cost-effective power production; a transmission company would focus on maintaining a secure national grid; and a distribution company would concentrate on reliable delivery, customer service and the reduction of commercial losses.
In conclusion, Tanzania’s objective should no longer simply be to generate enough power, but to ensure that every megawatt generated can reach consumers through stronger transmission and distribution networks and modern grid management.
