Tanzania's state-run power company announced on Wednesday daily 16-hour power cuts for a week starting from Thursday due to an expected shortfall of up to 350 megawatts (MW) on the national grid.

The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) said gold mines, factories and other major energy users had agreed to cut down power consumption during the week-long blackouts.

East Africa's second largest economy has been plagued by frequent power-outages since December, prompting the International Monetary Fund to revise its 2011 growth forecast for Tanzania to 6 percent from 7.2 percent previously.

The latest round of power rationing is due to routine maintenance at natural gas wells, said TANESCO.

"The nationwide power cuts will run from May 19 to May 26 and are caused by scheduled repairs at the Pan African Energy facility, which operates natural gas fields on the Songo Songo islands," TANESCO spokesman Badra Masoud told Reuters.

"The scheduled shut down ... will result in a deficit of between 200 MW and 350 MW of power in the national power grid, hence the power cuts."

Most of Tanzania's electricity is hydropower generated, but failed rains have cut output at the dams, increasing reliance on thermal power plants.

"We have talked to Buzwagi, Bulyanhulu and North Mara gold mines as well as cement factories and they have offered to cut down on the usage of electricity from the national grid during the course of the power rationing," William Mhando, TANESCO's managing director told state-run television on Wednesday.

The east African country has floated tenders inviting independent power producers to set up emergency power plants this year to generate an additional 260 MW of power.

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