Tanzania is planning a $300m energy project to export electricity to Kenya and Zambia, which is expected to be completed within the next two years, All Africa reported.

Work, financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), consists of developing the interconnection between the Tanzanian town of Iringa and Kenya’s Shinyanga in one project and between the same town of Iringa and Zambia’s Mbeya, both scheduled for completion between 2018 and 2019.

Tanzania Electric Supply Company’s (Tanesco) Deputy MD, Deckian Mhaiki, explained that part of the project will involve a 2,000MW supply line to Kenya, to be in place by 2018. Tanesco is in the final stage of floating a tender for the design and construction of the line to a border town in Kenya, which requires capacity of about 1,000MW through a double traffic line. This means that an extension of 1,600km-long backbone electricity transmission is needed between the towns of Iringa and Shinyanga. Mhaiki, however, said that the construction of the 680km line between the two towns, which had been slated for completion in June, has been delayed for another three months.

The Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Juliana Pallangyo, said that the country was missing a chance to trade power with other Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) member countries due to not being interconnected and with Souther Africa Power Pool members (SAPP). “We are fully committed to the implementation of Zambia-Tanzania interconnector that would see our country connected and benefit from SAPP,” she stressed, according to The Citizen. By connecting the country’s grid to Zambia’s, Tanzania would be automatically interconnected to all SAPP member states.