HISTORY

The first supply of electricity in Tanzania was established by Germans in 1908 at Dar es Salaam.  It served the railway workshops and part of the town.  When Tanganyika territory was mandated to Great Britain in 1920, a Government Electricity Department was formed under the Tanganyika Railways.  In 1931, the Government handed over the undertaking at Dar es Salaam, and new ones, which had emerged at Dodoma, Tabora and Kigoma to private enterprise.

Two private power companies were formed, one was the Tanganyika Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO), which was given a concession area on the Pangani Falls near Tanga.  The other company was the Dar es Salaam and District Electric Supply Company Limited  (DARESCO) whose concession areas were Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Tabora and Kigoma; and later expanded to Mwanza, Moshi, Mbeya, Morogoro, Mtwara and other townships.  Electricity generation in all these towns greatly depended on imported diesel oil. TANESCO developed the first hydro power station at Kange, in the outskirt of Tanga, along Pangani River.

In 1964, three years after independence, the Government bought all the shares from the two private companies and merged them into a single utility under TANESCO. In 1968, the company changed its name to the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited, as we know it today.

Since then, TANESCO started planning new power projects aimed at meeting the increasing industrial, commercial, and residential power demands.  Several major power development and construction projects have therefore been undertaken during the past three and half decades, including construction of new hydropower stations, transmission and distribution networks.  Construction of the national grid system; numerous 220 kV, 132 kV, 66 kV, 33 kV and 11 kV transmission distribution lines as well as 400V / 230V lines connecting customers.  Many isolated diesel power stations and rural electrification schemes have been constructed.  However, about only 11 percent of the country’s estimated population of 34 million have access to reliable electricity.