The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) has been urged to adhere to standards in service delivery to meet customers’ demands and expectations.
The advice was put forth by the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA) in Dar es Salaam. EWURA Director of Regulatory Economics, Felix Ngamlagosi said at least thirteen conditions will have to be met by TANESCO in the course of operating under the new tariffs (also announced yesterday).
The conditions, according to him, include among others, the submission for approval within three months after coming into force of this order, a plan for implementation of the Demand Side Management Programme.
Other conditions TANESCO is supposed to fulfil is strictly following the least cost merit order dispatch and submit to the authority on monthly basis reports showing the actual generation and generation plan as proposed by this order, said Mr Ngamlagosi.
He added that TANESCO should ensure that the procured projects are in line with the demand and capacity requirement as approved in the Power System Master Plan; all new power projects must be procured competitively in line with acts, rules and regulations made.
TANESCO is also supposed to submit on quarterly basis to the Authority the supply and reliability data of 11KV, 33KV, 66KV, 132KV, and 220KV by region for verification, including total duration of customer interruptions in hours per feeder, planned outages, unplanned outages, total number of outage per feeder, total number of customers served per feeder, total number of customers affected per feeder and total un-served energy in KWh he continued.
Furthermore, Mr Ngamlagosi said that TANESCO is requested to reduce technical losses in the distribution network from the level of 19 per cent in 2012 to a level of 15.1 percent in 2015.
The company is complied to design strategies for fighting illegal connections and eliminate delays in service provision pursuant to the Customer Service Charter said Mr Ngamlagosi.
He said TANESCO is obliged to submit to the Authority a plan for increasing the installation of LUKU meter readers to customers using conventional meters so as to reduce post paid customers and receivables.
TANESCO is also required to continue providing the Authority with information about its financial and operational conditions in accordance with the requirements of the Authority; the information will be used by EWURA to evaluate TANESCO’s performance in comparison with other utilities in the region and the improvement of its performance over time, the evaluation will be considered by EWURA in determining the reasonableness of all future requests for tariff and periodic adjustments, added Mr Ngamlagosi.
TANESCO is supposed to submit to the Authority on or before 31st of March 2014, the implementation plan of each condition of this order he said. On the other hand, Mr Ngamlagosi said that, “if TANESCO puts in extra efforts and commitment they will be able to fulfil all the conditions given as the system they are using is satisfactory.”
He added that to be sure on the implementation of the conditions, the Authority had a meeting with TANESCO on 6th December and they showed that they could handle the conditions.
Moreover, Mr Ngamlagosi said that TANESCO were given nearly 10 conditions in 2012 which they fully implemented even though they were in a tough financial condition; hence there is no doubt that they will be able to fulfil these conditions as well.
By MARY RAMADHANI, Tanzania Daily News
