Kikuletwa hydropower a National Strategic Support Grid saving Tanzania from tapping auxiliary power from Kenya

An auxiliary power production station located in Kilimanjaro will soon start operating as the National Strategic support grid, thus eliminating the need for Tanzania to import backing power supply from Kenya.

That came to light in Kilimanjaro during the special visit of the National Steering Committee for the World Bank (WB) funded East Africa Skills Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP), at the Kikuletwa Renewable Energy Training and Research Centre.

Sithole Edwin Mwakatage, the coordinator of East Africa Skills Transformation and Regional Integration Project in Tanzania told the delegation that the renewable energy center has accomplished a modern hydro power mill which will serve as a national strategic support grid.

“The Kikuletwa hydroelectricity plant is going to act as the voltage stabilizer in the Northern Zone, thuse eliminating the dependency on auxiliary power inputs from the neighboring countries, including Kenya,” explained Mwakatage.

The Kikuletwa Renewable Energy Training and Research Centre is located 20 kilometers from Boma-Ng’ombe Road Junction in the Hai District of Kilimanjaro.

The facility also runs its own hydropower station, which will start feeding the national grid with additional electricity power from as early as December 2026.

On the other hand, just as the world struggles with rocketing fuel costs following the ongoing war in the Middle East, Tanzania is placing itself in a strategic position to fill the gap through auxiliary renewable energy sources.

“We are building capacity for young people in East Africa to become experts in renewable energy and save the continent from being too dependent of fossil fuels that are now being seriously affected by geopolitical conflicts and events,” explained Dr Adam Faraji Mfangavoan instructor at the Arusha Technical College (ATC), an institution which runs the facility in Kilimanjaro.

The National Steering Committee delegation comprised Huma Kidwai, the World Bank (WB)’s Second Education and Skills for Productive Jobs (ESPJ-II) Task team leader and Nkahiga Mathus Kaboko the EASTRIP Task team leader and both expressed satisfaction with the development at the Kikuletwa renewable energy center in Kilimanjaro.

The team later held an audience with the Deputy Minister of Education, Science and technology, Wanu Hafidh Ameir in a closed meeting held at Boma ng’ombe afterwards.

Occupying over 354 acres of real estate, the new Campus, albeit the largest one, in the Northern Zone, is affiliated with Arusha Technical College (ATC).

Under the EASTRIP project, the Kikuletwa Training College, handles all forms of green and renewable energy, including hydropower, solar energy, wind power, bioenergy and geothermal.

According to the Arusha Technical College (ATC) Principal, Prof. Musa Chacha, until January 2026, the Kikuletwa Center had trained 3,519 students in renewable energy among them 631 girls, with a total of 116 scholars hailing from the neighboring country of Kenya.

In addition to educational programs, the Kikuletwa Center is also the only renewable energy training facility in Africa which runs its own power station.

Constructed at the cost of USD 4.63 million, the 10 billion-worth hydro-power mill will be able to churn out 1.7 megawatts of electricity during its first phase of production and feed it into the National grid.

Once the additional two phases are completed downstream, the facility will then be in position to yield a total of 17 megawatts into the main grid enough to power Arusha and Moshi Cities to excess.

The Hydroelectricity Station is rooted within the Kikuletwa Renewable Energy Training and Research Center, a facility run by the Arusha Technical College (ATC) which also serves as Africa’s sub-regional training center for renewable energy.

Project contractor is a Chinese firm known as HNAC Technology Company which works in association with White City International, a Tanzanian company.

East Africa Skills Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP), was hatched from a World Bank survey which revealed that over 25 percent of the formal firms surveyed in Sub-Saharan Africa identify an inadequately educated workforce as a major constraint, and over 29 percent of all production workers are rated unskilled workers by these firms.

EASTRIP is therefore addressing the shortage of specialized technical and vocational education and training (TVET) skills is particularly acute in transport, energy, manufacturing, including agro-processing, and ICT, so as to speed up the industrialization agenda.