Tanesco's Transformers Oil Theft: A Big Joke

[Zalendohalisi]

For almost a decade now, Tanesco has been crying foul on a daily basis with regards to what they call a chronic disease i.e. "Transformer Oil Theft" aka TOT. The first time I heard of the "problem" I just couldn't understand why in the first place one would drain a powered transformer and what would they use the drained oil for? Anyway there are so many theories as to the use of the oil but the fact remains that transformers get "fried-up" every time they are drained of the coolant.

I am told that a couple of viable, affordable and practical technical solutions to eliminate the TOT problem have been tabled to TANESCO as way back as 2001 with no follow-ups. I hear that a pilot project that proved very successful was undertaken by a local firm way back in 2003-2005. I'm also told that an in-house study of one of the proposed solutions was undertaken by TANESCO themselves at the same time, and the proposed solution was recommend for implementation; a public tendering document to that effect was prepared only to end up being locked up in the cabinets of the Netgroup management.

Various institutions such as DIT have also come up with very ambitious technical solutions to contain TOT; the problem is that TANESCO seems very much concerned with the DOWANS project at the moment. Sources within TANESCO indicate that a very practical solution from a local indigenous group has been locked up within TANESCO's procurement department cabinets for more that six months now.

My question to TANESCO's management is; are you really serious about curbing TOT; If what I have been told by your own employees is true, if you have been sitting on multiple solutions for a decade now, and if it is true that you have even tried some of the proposed solutions to your satisfaction and then you tell the president of the country that TOT is getting out of hand, then even a mute person can understand why getting DOWANS equipment is priority to you.

When such a technical institution as TANESCO applauds a non technical president for proposing a non technical solution to a problem that can only be contained through technical means, to me it is a big joke and it brings up questions of technical capability of the management in place.

TANESCO Management has commended the President and his Government as a whole for taking this matter seriously, and hoped stern measures would be taken to find a permanent solution.

You don't stop TOT by media campaigns, or giving our rewards for tipsters! You don't even solve the problem by punishing your customers by making the "pay" for not "guarding" the transformers.

You don't run to the president of a country for help eti wananiibia mafuta ya transformer mheshimiwa "A BIG JOKE". But I think it is no a joke when you approach the president with an issue such as the procurement of DOWANS gas turbines for 90bn Tshs.

TANESCO's NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

:: PRESIDENT MKAPA CONDEMNS VANDALISM OF POWER INFRASTRUCTURE

President Benjamin William Mkapa has condemned vandalism of public infrastructure and ordered the Police to arrest and prosecute the culprits with immediate effect. He declared such acts as economic sabotage and serious measures should be taken to curb the vice.

“We want immediate steps to be taken to arrest and charge the culprits before the courts. I don't understand why security organs have failed to do their work (of arresting the saboteurs), he said this in his routine address to the nation on 28 th February, 2005.

Mkapa said theft of transformer oil, railway spare parts, power transmission cables, and telephone cables was costing the government dearly.

“From year 2003 to date, incidents of stolen transformer oil in Dar es Salaam had risen to above 185 transformers, occasioning a loss of 1.2 billion T.shs.”, he said, and identified Dar es Salaam, Coast, Morogoro, Kilimanjaro and Dodoma regions with high incidents of theft of transformer coolants.

TANESCO Management has commended the President and his Government as a whole for taking this matter seriously, and hoped stern measures would be taken to find a permanent solution.

TANESCO on its part has started media campaigns to sensitize the public to report suspects and get a reward of 500,000/= given to anyone who volunteers information that can enable the suspects to be prosecuted in the court of law.

New technique can control transformer oil thefts - DIT

2008-07-24 10:49:30
By Guardian Reporter

The Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology has come up with a system that could help the power utility company, Tanesco, curb thefts of transformer oil, a countrywide problem that has cost the company millions of shillings.

Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday, DIT Principal Prof John Kondoro said the transformer protection system could detect thieves who drained oil from transformers.

In recent years, Tanzania has been witnessing increased power blackouts due to transformer burnout caused by thieves who drain oil from the machines.

Prof. Kondoro said the system would also guard transformers against overheating resulting from overloading as well as a decrease of oil caused by aging.

Under the system, he said, special gadgets would be fitted into transformers to detect intruders and alert the Tanesco control room.

``The system will have a self reporting and self protection mechanism against destruction,`` Prof. Kondoro said adding, ``When the gadget senses that the problem might damage the transformer, it will isolate it from the main supply line to prevent it from burning.``

He said the system would be networked through a wireless link to the central computer, where it would be showing the status of the transformer, its location, time the danger was experienced and action taken.

``This is an embedded system. It contains a control and monitoring software which will be installed at the control rooms; zonal and regional offices and at company headquarters,`` he said.

The DIT principal said the system had been tailored to suit the local situation, taking into account the fact that there was no theft of oil in countries the transformers were manufactured, hence no global solution to the problem.............

Prof. Kondoro said for both technologies, DIT was still negotiating with Tanesco on how they could be applied.

* SOURCE: Guardian

The African
Editorial


05.02.2009

Tanesco must address the other problems as well

This week the country’s power utility – Tanesco –announced an ambitious plan to construct a new 400KV national grid to support its existing dilapidated power supply backbone. The announcement came at a time when the nation has been experiencing unscheduled power blackouts said to be caused by its weighed down network. The new backbone is to be built across central Tanzania from Iringa to Shinyanga.

While we hold no qualms over the planned project that is aimed to improve Tanesco’s overloaded distribution network, we would like to remind the power utility that there are other vital areas that need to be looked into and that are also undermining its performance – in so far as income generation is concerned.

First and foremost among them is the issue of corruption that is deeply entrenched within and which denies the firm a substantial amount of revenue.

Some unscrupulous customers including factory owners collude with some Tanesco staff to steal power. This is mainly done through tampering of Tanesco meters – both ordinary and prepaid (LUKU) ones.

And Tanesco staff who are tasked to disconnect power from defaulters’ premises often don’t do so after they are handed cash bribes.

Likewise, Tanesco has not been able to end the nagging question of tampering of meters in customers’ premises by unauthorized people popularly known as “vishoka” – many of them believed to be former technicians of the firm.

Equally grave is the irritating issue of theft of transformer oil and that of power cables. It appears Tanesco has failed to find a permanent solution to this long time problem that has been destroying the firm’s vital infrastructure.

Lastly, but not the least important, is the power utility’s dual-system of revenue collection. There is the prepaid system introduced over 15 years ago and the normal (old) billing system.

We think that for a single power utility to have in place two systems through which it bills its customers may be working against it – collection-wise.
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