This report focuses on the latter two. There are two main supply lines for electricity, connection to a grid or to a solar device with battery. TANESCO is the government agency running the electricity grid net. But in rural areas, the government agency REA will build the grid.  When the REA network is extended to a community, connection to the house is free of charge and households only pay for internal wiring.

The main driver for connection to the grid at household level is access to the grid in the community. In Dar-es-Salaam 87 percent live in a community with access and 86 percent are connected. In other urban areas 70 percent have access at community level while 59 percent are connected. Even at rural level, 36 percent have access at community level.

REA usually only builds one customer voltage transformer in the central area of a community. More remote households will need a second transformer and today this requires a high connection fee. The only option in many rural areas is still solar power. But this may well be a cost-efficiency solution.

Households in Dar es Salaam, other urban areas and rural areas have distinctly different cooking solutions. The majority of rural households relies on a basic fireplace with three stones for cooking. In urban areas charcoal is the common fuel, while households in Dar es Salaam may even use LPG gas for cooking.

When identifying the main drivers for connection to the grid or solar power, it is important to disentangle the causality. Hence, we focused on the household who lived in communities with recent (last 5 years) access to the grid to learn who choose to connect. For households living in communities with no access to the grid, we focused on the households who did not have any solar power 5 years ago to learn the driving force to a recent access to electricity through solar power.

We identified four groups:

  • Early birds establishing a solar device before a grid was possible.
  • Mid-range households connecting to the grid, when the grid poles arrived.
  • Late comers may be able to invest in a solar device at a later point in time.
  • Outsiders with few resources or living in the outskirts of the village will often not be able to get access to electricity within the household.

An energy efficient cooking solution varied from area to area. In Dar es Salaam, the energy efficient option is to switch to LPG gas. In other urban areas, the energy efficient option is to switch to more energy efficient charcoal burner with proper air regulation and insulated burning chambers. Rural household will face a higher threshold when changing to a modern oven for solid fuel or to a charcoal option.

Policy recommendations:

  • When REA extend the grid net to a community, they may consider building several transformers. Compared with the initial cost, the costs of one more transformer is low.
  • If the government wants to expand the access to electricity, the most cost-efficient solution for remote areas may well be solar energy.
  • In order to ensure an efficient market for solar energy panels and batteries, it is essential that communities and households have access to reliable information on technical options and a proper balance between solar panel capacity and battery capacity and alternative battery types. A government contribution in Tanzania may focus on establishing demonstration sites in cooperation with the business community.