Student ID: 37-196927

Name: SAYEED Quazi Shammas

Course: Designing Infrastructure Projects in Developing Countries

Part 1

Solar PV Power Generation & Small Grid for Rural Area in Tanzania

Background Study: Tanzania is a country situated in East Asia. The area of this country is
947,303 sq km and the population is 44.9 million (NBSMF – 2013). 67% of its population lives
in rural areas. 26.7% of the population of this country living below poverty level (USAID, 2019).
Electricity shortage is an important issue to solve for this nation for further development. This
study is conducting to explain the design & planning of the project “PV Power Generation with
Small Grid for Rural Area in Tanzania” to provide rural people affordable and clean energy.

For many Tanzanian, the sun sets and it’s pitch black. Even only 33% population of this country
has electricity access. Moreover, for those who have electricity connection experience problems
with reliability and quality of service – such as power cuts and fluctuations in power supply that
can damage equipment (Garside & Wood, 2018). This inaccessibility for electricity to local
people lead towards several problems not only affecting the daily lives of people but also
damage to business by causing fluctuations in manufacturing. Finally, the shortcomings
accumulated to the national economy and hamper its growth.

Problem Identification: The main two reason for the electricity is not accessible is that the
inadequate infrastructural capacity of Tanzania and inability of people for affording the
electricity connection. Hence the primary problem identified is the shortage for electricity
production, besides the electricity is not affordable by local people. The secondary problem is the
dependency on combustible fuel (wood) cause deforestation. The other subsequent problem
associated with shortage of electricity is the health problem and poor education quality.

Current Energy Status of Tanzania: Number of people in Tanzania has the access of electricity
connection is shown differently by different studies though, fluctuating between 18% to 67%,
according to USAID study only 33% of total population have electricity access. In this country,
TANESCO is the main utility responsible for electricity supply chain and for the sale of
electricity. Among the total population have electricity access 74.9 percent received electricity
supplied through the grid (USAID, 2019). Aside from electricity, people need energy for cooking
and other manufacturing process as well. In that case this country people is highly dependent on
biomass fuel, about 90%. Besides the country is mostly dependent on agriculture (Felix, Shabbir,
Gheewala. 2011). This dependency on biomass results in deforestation and destruction of fossil
fuel. Total energy consumed by Tanzanian people and the total electricity produced in this
country is shown below in the pie chart with respect to the source of energy:

1%
8%2% 1%
16%
Biomass
Petroleum Hydropower
39%
products Natural Gas
Electricity Liquid Fuel
Coal & other Bio Mass
reneables 44%
90%

Figure 1: Total energy consumed in Tanzania by source (left) and total electricity produced by source
(right)

Objective of the Project: As per the identified problems, a photovoltaic (PV) power generation
with small grid of 1MW capacity project is considered. Following are the objectives for the
project:

 Clean & Affordable Electricity for Rural People: PV power generation process is CO 2
emission free power generation. The electricity cost produced by PV panel are cheaper as
well. By the year 2050, it will be the cheapest source of energy (IRENA, 2019). Thus, the
primary aim is to serve local people with electricity at a cheaper rate so that electricity
can be afforded by everyone. On the other hand, another important constrain for
Tanzania’s electricity infrastructure development is the low population density. So small
grid system is introduced aim to reduce the infrastructural development cost associated
with national main grid connection.
  Reducing the Dependency of Fossil Fuel: Tanzania is very resourceful in minerals
specially in Gas and fossil fuel (Lokia & Leiman, 2014). PV power generation can play
an important role to refrain Tanzanian people from burning natural resources and further
CO2 emission.
 Improvement in health: As mentioned earlier, local people are dependent on burning
combustibles for their cooking and manufacturing process and these activities lead them
toward a greater health risk notably premature birth and infant death (Haldern & Smit,
2000). This project will help the people to complete their task with solar energy instead
of burning combustibles and thus it is aiming for a greater help improvement.
 Quality Education: Due to the lack of electricity, activities of educational institutes are
hampering. With supply of electricity continuously will help to improve their educational
quality as well.
 SDGs goal: Besides the project is aiming to a pioneer project for African region in order
to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The primary focus is goal number 7:
Clean and affordable energy.

Solar Potentiality of Tanzania: Tanzania has a high and mostly untapped potential for
renewable energy resource including solar and wind. Being positioned along the earth equilateral
line, most abundant source of renewable energy is solar energy in this country. It is said that the
potentiality of solar in Tanzania is greater than the total solar potentiality in Spain. Global
horizontal radiation is 4-7 KWh sq m per day. Total sunshine in Tanzania is ranging between
2800 to 3500 hours per year. Solar radiation is particularly higher in the central region of the
country.

Till date, the total installed capacity is 1264 MW where the total solar power generation capacity
is 7 MW only. Among this 6 MW is off-grid and 1 MW is connected to the grid only. 64.8%
people in rural areas who have access to the electricity are solely dependent on solar energy
whereas 3.4% of urban population are dependent on solar power. Among the total electricity
consumer 24,7% people are dependent on solar power as an alternative source of electricity
(Bishog, Zhang & Mushi, 2018).

Project Overview: African, Carrabin and Pacific (ACP) is an organization of European

commission working for the development of the stated regions. They provide funding to the
developing countries to achieve the SDGs. From 2011 renewable sectors are promoted by them.
The proposal for this project is allocate the necessary amount of money for a 1 MW PV power
generation project by Tanzanian government from ACP-EU. The funding will be allocated to the
national utility TANESCO to implement the project by themselves. TANESCO – Tanzania
Electric Supply Company is the government owned utility in Tanzania since 1964 (Anton
Eberhard et. al., 2016). Three possible ways was studied for the feasibility as following:

1. 1 MW PV plant and the consumers are connected to the plant directly

2. Install individual solar panel for individual consumer in their territory
3. Combination of 1 MW PV plant with individual solar panel installed within the
consumers owned area combined with a Mini Grid system.

Finally, third structure is selected as the most feasible one. As it is evident that the renewable
energy generation is largely dependent on daily environmental condition and the production may
fluctuate. Hence solely dependence on the 1 MW PV plant installed by TANESCO may fail to
meet the electricity demand continuously. As no storage system is introduced to keep maintain a
lower project cost, Mini Grid combination system will be effective as the electricity produced by
consumers will be sold to TANESCO Mini Grid with a relatively higher price and then can be
bought with relatively cheaper cost will increase the consumers interest to install PV panel in
their area. Besides, if some area is producing more electricity than their actual demand, those
excess electricity can be sold to the part lacking from production. In this total system, Tanzanian
government can introduce Feed in Tariff (FIT) system to promote the PV power generation.
Total project overview is presented as below:
 Figure 2: 1 MW PV power with Mini Grid Project overview.

Project Planning, Implementation & Evaluation: Planning and designing is the strenuous task
for any project. The PV plant project planning starts from the Geospatial study and Demand
study. Geographically Tanzania is a high potential area for PV electricity generation however
such a land shall be selected for installing the 1 MW PV plant & Mini Grid so that the
deforestation or compensation associated with the land acquisition can be minimized. The village
Singida is selected as the project area. This village is very important economically and the
demand for electricity is very high as four national highways are merged in this village and it is
situated beside the Capital, Dodomo, of Tanzanai.

The technology for PV plant is well established already and the cost of electricity generation is
very low considering other renewable energy sources. Studies shall be done for material
selection and infrastructural development including the distribution lines.

Economic and Financial viability of this project shall be performed to do the cost benefit analysis
of this project. Besides study shall be done for the laws and regulations to be implemented
including estimating the price of electricity so that the electricity can achieve the goal of this
project. Finally, the environmental impact assessment shall be done to find the exact impact of
this project on the environment and to find the mitigation for the possible destructions and
damages.
During the implementation of the project all the stakeholder’s responsibility shall be ensured.
International AID (ACP-EU) & consultants will ensure the fund, project planning and designing
safeguards and sustainability of the project. Government and TANESCO will be liable for
securing grants, project monitoring and coordination, evaluation, maintenance and tariff
collection. Users shall be accountable for tariff payment and maintenance of the installed
infrastructure within their territory.

Risk, Challenges and Mitigation: Risk study is an important task for a project to find the
effective mitigations. For this project there are several risks shall be considered, following are
the risks (Anton Eberhard et. al., 2016):

 Political risk: events resulting from adverse actions by the host government or from
politically motivated violence;
 Regulatory risk: any change in law or regulation that may have a negative impact on a
project; and credit.
 Payment risk: deficiencies in the credit quality and the payment capacity of the off taker.
 Environmental Risk: the project associated with land acquisition and deforestation to
construct the infrastructure.

Beneficiaries: The immediate output, within 5 years of project implementation, of this project
will be the infrastructural development associated with the PV power plant and the clean energy.
Clean energy within affordable cost can help to achieve SDG 7, affordable and clean energy.

Possible outcome can be the improvement in health condition and improvement in the quality of
education, SDG 3 and SDG 4 respectively. After 5 years of the implementation of the project,
this can be measured from the daily data of health care centers and educational institutes. This
project will not only help to improve the health condition of local people but also the quality of
service by health centers. Significant reduction in deforestation can be observed after 10 years as
an impact of this project. It will help to achieve local people’s independency on biomass and thus
the deforestation will be reduced. However, initial deforestation during the implementation of the
project shall be considered for final measurement. Despite the initial deforestation, it will help to
archive the SDG 15.
 Figure 3: Beneficiaries of this project and SDGs

Conclusions: According to the masterplan for energy sector by Tanzanian government, the
countries dependency on natural resource and fossil fuel burning is more than 60%. The
potentiality of solar power and other renewable energy sectors are not utilized. If implemented,
this pioneer project will help Tanzania to improve their independency on fossil fuel and keep
their energy security as it is before.

References:

 Anton Eberhard et. al., 2016. Independent Power Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from
Five Key Countries. The World Bank, April 18, 2016.
 Bishog, Zhang & Mushi, 2018. The Potential Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development in
Tanzania: A Review
 Felix, Shabbir, Gheewala. 2011. A Review of Biomass Energy Dependency in Tanzania. 9th Eco-
Energy and Materials Science and Engineering Symposium. Energy Procedia 9 (2011) 338 – 343
 USAID, 2019. Off-Grid SolarMarket Assessment, Tanzania. Retrieved on Jan 5 2020 from
www.usaid.gov
 Razack Lokia & Anthony Leiman, 2014. Managing natural resources for sustainable growth and
human development in Tanzania - the case of extractive industry. The Economic and Social
Research Foundation.
 J.P. Holdren, K.R. Smith, 2000. Energy, the environment, and health. World energy assessment:
energy and the challenge of sustainability, United Nations Development Programme, New York
(2000).
  Ben Garside, Devida Wood, 29 June 2018. Improving Tanzania’s power quality: can data help?
International Institute for Environmental and Development. Retrieved on Jan 4 2020 from
www.iied.org
 IRENA, November 2019. Future of solar photovoltaic: Deployment, investment, technology, grid
integration and socio-economic aspects. International Renewable Energy Agency.

Part 2: Personal Contribution

Personal contribution: I would like to contribute to geospatial study and technical design at the
design stage and as a contract manager in construction & implementation stage.
Reason for this sector: Efficiency and effectiveness of any project depends on the planning and
design. PV plant effectiveness are largely dependent on effective land selection. Most solar
potential land with minimum destruction such as deforestation and resettlement shall be selected.
Firstly, As civil engineer having understating in renewable energy, I hope I can contribute this ,
planning & design, sector effectively.
Secondly, despite of the design, success of any project largely dependent on the execution of the
plan effectively. During the execution, contract management is one the most important sector to
be maintained carefully. Having previous experience in contract management, I hope I can
contribute the project in this management sector as well.