l period, the company will be generating electricity at its own risk, implying that the power it will be providing to Tanesco will be at no cost from "Symbion to them." "This will enable an immediate benefit to the country," he said. "Symbion has been ready to commence online testing of the plant since last Friday. We are waiting for official approval to do that and we hope to receive this early this week. We have not yet received a response to our proposal from Tanesco so we assume that they are still evaluating it." Symbion Power acquired the 120-MW fuel-fired thermal plants earlier this month. The plants, which previously belonged to Dowans Tanzania Ltd., haven't been in operation for over a year following a power supply dispute between Tanesco and Dowans. Tanzania, Africa's fourth-largest gold producer, has been grappling with power shortages due to rising demand, mainly from the mining and manufacturing sectors. Upon signing the power purchase deal, Symbion is expected to start generating power at the plants using gas and heavy oils, according to people familiar with the situation. Earlier this month, Tanesco asked gold mining companies to cut consumption fom a campaign last year. But Greenpeace has said if it strikes oil this summer it will spark an oil rush that would devastate the fragile Arctic environment. Greenland's government said that Greenpeace's actions were "illegal" and the protesters could be removed by the police if they continued to occupy the rig. "It is a clear illegal action (by) Greenpeace that violates and abuses the free right to sail according to international regulations on the ocean," it said in a statement. Activist Ben Ayliffe, said the protesters set up camp in a survival pod with enough supplies for 10 days and were meters from the huge drill-bit that Cairn hopes will strike oil in the coming weeks. Greenpeace hopes that by disrupting Cairn's tight drilling schedule as it did last year, the onset of colder conditions will stop the campaign later in the year. "We are preventing it from drilling because an oil spill up here would be nearly impossible to deal with due to the freezing conditions and remote location," he said Sunday. Protests by Greenpeace disrupted Cairn's last Greenland drilling campaign in 2010. Although the company found traces of oil and gas it said were encouraging, it was able to drill