AFRICA its six units which will enable it to produce more electricity . It ’ s simpler for the company to upgrade existing units , as the site contain all of the necessary infrastructure already , than to build entirely new facilities , and generation capacity could increase from 180MW to 240MW if the government grants approval .
“ Songas is a thriving business , it runs very well , the plant performance is very good , and the electricity price is low . We think we ’ ve been a fantastic asset for Tanzania . Pan African Energy Tanzania ( PAET ) recently put some calculations in the newspaper saying that Songo Songo Island gas has saved the Tanzanian government $ 6.2bn since operations began – money that would otherwise have been spent on producing the same amount of energy with imported fuels . So Songas has been very successful , not just for the shareholders but for Tanzania as a whole .” 54 % of Songas ’ shares are held by Globeleq and 46 % are held by the Government of Tanzania through holdings by
TANESCO , TDC and TDFL .
Songas sees a future in which its generating capacity is expanded by about 30 %, and its parent company , Globeleq , is extremely interested in pursuing other power development projects as soon as it gets the go-ahead . The gas at Songo Songo Island is sufficient to meet the needs of Songas ’ s future growth , and the infrastructure is not fully utilised . So while Songas does have to wait for precisely the right environment and the necessary approval , the future certainly looks bright .
“ There are enough resources on Songo Songo Island for us to introduce , improve , and increase electricity generation ,” Whittaker concludes . “ Tanzania will be a very interesting market for us once we can see there ’ s some stability returned to the electricity sector here .” www . energydigital . com 79