The Iringa-Shinyanga transmission line in Tanzania has emerged as a vital link in the Eastern Africa Power Pool.
Africa’s power pools play a crucial role in supporting regional integration by facilitating grid interconnection between neighboring countries. These interconnected grids allow nations to buy and sell power across borders through a shared market mechanism.
Investing in the vital infrastructure that underpins these power pools will as such remain a key focus for the African Development Bank as it intensifies efforts to light up and power Africa under Mission 300.
The Bank highlighted this commitment during a press event in Dodoma, Tanzania, in the run up to the Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam this January. It said that the Iringa-Shinyanga transmission line in Tanzania had emerged as a vital link in the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) and that it would help boost the continent’s fledgling but promising regional electricity markets.
This multi-partner project – backed by five financial partners including the African Development Bank and the World Bank – involves a 400 kV transmission line linking Iringa in the southern highlands to Shinyanga in the northern parts of the country.
The 670 km transmission line reinforces a preexisting 220 kV line and has significantly boosted energy reliability for households and businesses by linking power generation sources in southern Tanzania to load centers in the north.
The African Development Bank stressed that the project is unique not only for its local impact, but also for its crucial role in supporting the interconnectivity of power pools across the wider region. It is currently the only transmission line capable of facilitating electricity trade between the EAPP and the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).
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