Tanzania's energy consumption
Tanzania's energy consumption is characterized by a heavy reliance on traditional energy sources, primarily wood fuel, which accounts for over 90% of the total energy use as of 2016. This dependency poses significant challenges, as the majority of the population lacks access to modern energy services, limiting economic and social development efforts. The primary consumers of energy include rural and urban households, small industries, and agricultural processes. While Tanzania possesses diverse energy resources, including renewable options like hydropower and solar energy, these are largely underutilized, with hydropower facing challenges due to droughts that lead to frequent power outages.
Electricity generation in Tanzania relies predominantly on natural gas and hydropower, but consumption per capita remains among the lowest globally. As of 2022, less than half of households had access to electricity, with rural access significantly lower. The country’s energy sector is primarily managed by the state-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO), but reforms are underway to encourage private investment and improve the energy mix. The ongoing efforts aim to enhance the reliability of energy supply while addressing the environmental and social issues associated with traditional energy consumption.
Tanzania's energy consumption
Official Name: United Republic of Tanzania.
Summary: Tanzania has various fossil and renewable energy resources but the country depends heavily on traditional energy sources like wood fuel. The majority of the population has no access to modern energy services.
Traditional biomass fuels such as wood fuel, charcoal, agricultural residues, and animal dung have been the dominating energy source in the past and are still the major energy source in Tanzania today. According to a commonly quoted estimate, as of 2016, traditional biomass accounted for more than 90 percent of the total energy consumption in Tanzania. The main consumers are rural and urban households, small-scale industries, and agricultural processing businesses.
Commercial energy sources account for approximately 10 percent of consumption, of which 8 percent is covered by petroleum products and 2 percent by electricity. The lack of access to and availability of modern energy services interferes with efforts to reduce poverty and weakens the country’s economic and social development. In addition, dependency on firewood as a key energy source causes major environmental, economic, and social problems. The use of wood fuel in unsustainable quantities leads, for instance, to deforestation, erosion, and environmental degradation. Moreover, the task of collecting firewood occupies much of the population, especially women and children, for several hours every day, keeping them from education and income-generating activities.
Energy Resources
Tanzania has diverse energy resources including renewable energy sources such as hydropower, solar energy, modern bioenergy, wind power, and geothermal power, as well as fossil energy sources such as natural gas and coal. Although various renewable energy technologies, including solar thermal, photovoltaic, windmills, biogas, and small-scale hydropower, have already been implemented, nearly all technologies are in an early stage of development, leaving most of the renewable energy potential still untapped. To date, only hydropower resources are exploited at considerable scale by large hydropower plants. However, in the twenty-first century, enduring droughts have had severe effects on large-scale hydropower generation in the country. The results were frequent load shedding and blackouts. Despite these problems, plans are to build additional large-scale hydropower facilities. Another renewable energy source that is being widely discussed is liquid biofuel—for instance, from jatropha or sugarcane. However, by the 2020s, biofuels were only in the initial stage and did not contribute to the country’s energy supply.
Tanzania’s indigenous fossil energy resources started to be used on a substantial scale in 2004, when natural gas was added to the energy mix. The gas is produced in the Songo Songo gas fields in the Indian Ocean and transported to Dar es Salaam via pipeline, where it is used mainly to generate electricity.
Modern Energy Services: Electricity and Petroleum
The country had an installed electricity generation capacity of 1,938 megawatts by 2024. In 2021, 62 percent of electricity generation was fueled by natural gas, followed by hydropower (35.6 percent). The levels of electricity consumption per capita are among the lowest worldwide. By 2022, about 46 percent of all households had access to electricity. The access rate in rural areas was 36 percent.
Despite these facts, the demand for electricity exceeds the installed generation capacity. Meeting the rising demand is a challenging task that the country must face. Although the situation improved after Tanzania suffered its worst power shortage in 2006–07, declining water levels at the country’s hydroelectric dams, caused by enduring droughts, have led to blackouts that occur on a daily basis. Power rationing was announced in 2010 because of technical problems and sinking water levels at the hydropower facilities. These shortcomings in the power sector not only affect households but also threaten Tanzania’s long-term economic growth and competitiveness. The economy either must rely on expensive backup systems, such as diesel generators, or must completely suspend business activities during load shedding.
Structure of the Energy Sector
The state-owned, vertically integrated Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) is the dominating institution in the energy sector, responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. While in the past TANESCO enjoyed a monopoly over the national electricity industry, ongoing power sector reforms, which started in the early 1990s, allow independent power producers (IPPs) to operate in Tanzania. Two independent power producers generate electric power: Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL), which started to operate a diesel power plant in 2002, and Songas Limited, which started electricity generation based on natural gas in 2004. The two IPPs added significant thermal capacity to the electricity mix in Tanzania, reducing the dependence on hydropower from nearly 90 percent.
The country’s ongoing process of energy sector reforms have included other developments as well. An autonomous regulatory authority, the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA), was established in 2006 to ensure regulatory oversight and to promote private-sector investment in the energy sector. Furthermore, the Rural Energy Agency (REA) became operational in 2007 to expand and improve access to modern energy services in rural areas. To accomplish this mission, REA, which drives its authority from the Rural Energy Act 2005, commands the financial instruments of the newly established Rural Energy Fund. In 2008, the Petroleum Act was passed to strengthen the petroleum downstream subsector. Future energy reform plans include a restructuring of the energy sector, privatizing of utilities, and unbundling of energy generation, transmission, and distribution.
Bibliography
Food and Agriculture Organization. Bioenergy and Food Security: The BEFS Analysis for Tanzania. Environment and Natural Resources Management Working Paper 35. Rome: Bioenergy and Food Security Project/Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2010.
Gratwick, K., R. Ghanadan, and A. Eberhard. “Generating Power and Controversy: Understanding Tanzania’s Independent Power Projects.” Journal of Energy in Southern Africa 17, no. 4 (2006).
Gwang’ombe, F., and N. Mwihava. Renewables in Tanzania: Status and Prospects of Biomass-Based Cogeneration and Geothermal Technologies. Occasional Paper 27. Nairobi, Kenya: African Energy Policy Research Network, 2005.
Mkilaha, I. S. N. “The Electric Energy Crisis and Options for the Future Needs of Tanzania.” Paper presented at the Conference on Collaborative Research for Technological Development, Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda, December 17–18, 2007.
"Tanzania." International Energy Agency, 2022, www.iea.org/countries/tanzania. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.
"Tanzania." US Energy Information Administration, 2023, www.eia.gov/international/overview/country/TZA. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.
"Tanzania." The World Factbook, 7 Aug. 2024, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/tanzania/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.