By Basil Malaki

The problem of unreliable power in Tanzania

Access to energy can transform the economic outlook of any country. Yet getting access to a reliable electricity supply remains a huge challenge in Tanzania.

Frequent power cuts and voltage fluctuations make it difficult for businesses to operate and for domestic users to go about their daily life. Power cuts are often unceremonious and linked to increasingly volatile weather conditions – such as heavy storms in the rainy season or depleted hydro resources during droughts.

The latest Energy Access Situation Survey, 2016 produced by Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics shows that only 4 percent of Tanzanian households rated the quality of power supplied to their houses as “very good”. Most households (59% of respondents from Tanzania mainland) said that the quality of power supplied to their houses was “fair” (46 percent for rural, and 62 percent for urban).

The focus of service providers and governments is often on infrastructure and expanding grids. Such investments are important, but the Energy Change Lab is looking at this problem from another angle, starting with users themselves.

Using data transparency to improve service quality

Through our Better Power project, the Lab has identified that better sharing of information among energy providers and their customers, and good customer feedback mechanisms, could help improve energy users’ perceptions of the quality of energy services.

One way we are exploring this is through partnering with The World Resources Institute (WRI) and Prayas Energy Group, and also with the International Growth Centre (IGC), which has funded this project. Together we are testing out a prototype which monitors and shares data on the quality of electricity supply in Dar Es Salaam.

The Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative (ESMI), which was first developed by WRI and Prayas in India, uses a crowdsourcing methodology to generate independent data about the quality of electricity supply to different stakeholders, such as households, businesses and public bodies.

The project collects the data through a simple plug-in device to an electricity socket (see photo). This monitors voltage levels, supply interruptions and hours of power outage. The data is analysed and uploaded to a website (for Dar Es Salaam data, see http://www.betterpower-tanzania.org/).

The idea is that sharing data could help stakeholders to monitor service quality over time, compare the service across jurisdictions, and evaluate performance against regulatory standards.

One way we are exploring this is through partnering with The World Resources Institute (WRI) and Prayas Energy Group, and also with the International Growth Centre (IGC), which has funded this project. Together we are testing out a prototype which monitors and shares data on the quality of electricity supply in Dar Es Salaam.

 

Sharing the data

As part of our initial, year-long test, we are monitoring 25 locations across 5 districts in Dar es Salaam namely: Temeke, Ubungo, Kinondoni, Ilala and Kigamboni. These are principally domestic users, but do include some small enterprises. The test is focused on grid-supply, but it could scale to include mini-grids, off-grid supply and rural areas.

During our first four months of monitoring (June—September 2017), we have noticed a number of interesting features in the data. For example:

• Power cuts affect some districts more than others, with Temeke bearing a higher burden. We recorded a total or 372 hours of power outages across 5 locations in Temeke. These can be relatively short interruptions (15 minutes to an hour), or longer ones (more than an hour). But whatever the length, it all adds up. Our monitoring sites faced the equivalent of 16 days without power - or just under one day a month for each home or business.

• By contrast, Kinondoni and Ubungo districts experienced 115 and 130 hours each of power cuts across a similar number of locations – or around 5 days in total without power.

• Power outages appear to be more frequent in areas where there is less industry, as is the case with Temeke. We’re curious about what drives this difference and will see if a trend emerges. Is unreliable power supply a cause of low industrial activity, or could the absence of many commercial users be a disincentive to improving the quality of power supply?

• Evening supply is patchy, suggesting households are not getting reliable power at the time they need it most. The ESMI devices register when locations receive 178 hours or more of evening supply (5pm-11pm). In June and August, 3 out of the 5 districts met the threshold of required hours, while in July and September only 1 district achieved this target.

What next?

At this stage, we are focused on testing the technology and data platform, and seeing what trends we can observe from a small-scale experiment.

Later on we look beyond simply supplying data to look at how different stakeholders might use the information to improve service performance, or to press for better policy and practice in the energy sector.

The data derived from the ESMI systems could help inform the state-utility, TANESCO, and EWURA, the national energy regulator responsible for ensuring customers get a good deal.

The Lab has shared ESMI reports with key energy actors, and is already engaged in discussions on how the data can be used effectively as well as cross-check our findings.

Next year, we will take the debate wider and convene a workshop to share our learnings and explore other social and technical innovations that could improve the responsiveness of energy suppliers to their customers. Please get in touch if you have a promising idea to share.