This is contrary to suggestions that the intermittent power cuts which
have hit different parts of the country for the last several months
were linked to fast-falling water levels at the dam.
Power generation at the two main units of the dam, which lies at the
border separating Dodoma and Iringa regions, was in full swing when a
reporting crew from this paper made a surprise visit to the area
mid-this week.
Tanesco officials and workers at the 100-meter underground Mtera plant
said water levels have stood at decent levels for the last two years
and talked of stable national grid power supply unless unforeseen
circumstances intervene.
The last readings taken on Tuesday showed that the water level had
reached 696.07m above sea level, way above the 690m recommended as the
level below which power generation is suspended.
Mtera power station acting manager Stephen Mfumbutsa said in an
interview that there was gradual but steady increase in the dam`s water
level since last month.
“There have been enough rains in and around catchment areas in Mbeya
and Singida regions as well as other places that feed Ruaha and Kitego
rivers, draining into Mtera Dam. This is good news to us because it
means that power generation is assured,“ he noted.
“Water is extremely precious for us. In fact it is much like an oil
reserve that no one would like to see depleted,“ he added.
The official, who gave the explanation while running through a diagram
with details on the national power grid, said Mtera has two 40-MW
generating units and both have been running smoothly throughout for
months now.
Power consumers have nothing to worry about because, as the trend
shows, there is currently no possibility of power rationing, a
confident-looking Mfumbutsa stated.
Commenting on the causes for the recent intermittent power fluctuations
in some other areas in the country, he said the situation was
unfortunate but was not due to problems with their production units.
Elaborating, he said it was likely that one reason was faults originating from the power transmission lines.
Gosbert Matandu, a long-serving Mtera station technician now also
serving as assistant to the operations manager at the site, then took
the journalists to the dam site for a verification of the day`s water
level readings.
Pointing at the yardstick (graduated iron bar), Matandu said once the
water level exceeded 698.5m, the maximum level for the dam`s holding
capacity, operators would be obliged to open the floodgates to avoid
serious consequences.
“This is the level of water for today. The readings are closely
monitored day and night to make sure that the amount of water meant to
have the runners (two turbines) going was within the recommended
level,“he explained.
The aim is to avoid air-sucking in case of low water level which may cause cavitations to the runners, he said.
Meanwhile, Mtera station operations manager Joseph Chomola produced a
computer-monitored chat which showed monthly water level readings.
That was in an attempt to “clear the air“ and assure consumers that
power would continue to flow at both Mtera (80MW) and Kidatu station
(204MW), both of which receive water from Mtera Dam.
Chomola said daily records showed that there has been a gradual
increase in the level of water since the beginning of this month.
“For example, on February 1 it was 696.03 m and the readings on
February 10 (the day The Guardian toured the station) was 696.07m. It
is our hope that the pleasant situation will continue because the long
annual rains are expected to set in shortly,“ he pointed out.
He added: “Even if the water level were to fall by a whole two
centimetres a day, God forbid, it would have taken more that 300 days
to reach the minimum level of 690m“.
Plant Operator (Control Room) Alfred Machismo sat at a corner on Mtera
station's lowest floor, surrounded by several direct telephone lines
and computer sets to make sure that any unusual alarm sounded is
promptly attended to.
“As you can see, everything is running at full capacity here. We have
deliberately lowered the output to 30MW and 28MW for in line with
instructions from the Grid Control Centre in Dar es Salaam, popularly
known as SCADA, depending on the load or consumption rate at the
specific moment,“ he explained, adding: “Things are perfect and there
is no cause for consumer alarm or panic.“
A beaming Machimo then fixed his eyes on the huge control unit, as live
meter readers monitored every section of the production process.
Tanesco said recently that the nation is on the verge of a power crisis
and announced an ambitious plan to put up a new 400KV national grid to
support its existing dilapidated power supply backbone.
The giant state-run power company blamed frequent blackouts experienced
in Dar es Salaam and several other regions recently to an
“overwhelmed“ Tanesco network.
According to Tanesco, the new transition backbone is to be built from
Iringa to Shinyanga through Singida Region and is to meet increased
countrywide demand for electricity.
The firm`s capacity to generate and supply power has been seriously
eroded over the years chiefly by a high rise in demand, sabotage of its
infrastructure and transformer oil thefts.
Ensuring quality and reliable supply becomes an increasingly nagging
problem as demand continues rising, officials and analysts say.
The existing 220KV and 132KV transmission system suffers from frequent
voltage depressions, surges and sometimes total outages, according to
Tanesco Managing Director Idris Rashidi.
* SOURCE: GUARDIAN
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