Ethiopia finishes construction of international interconnection links

• 13 years ago (2010-07-28)
• David Flin

North America 998

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Ethiopia has announced the completion of construction of electricity transmission lines to enable the country to supply electricity to neighbouring countries.

The Ethiopian Electricity Power Corporation (EEPCo) said that the interconnection line joining Ethiopia and Djibouti was nearly ready for operation, while the interconnection lines to Kenya and Sudan were on schedule. EEPCo said that it plans to begin exporting power to Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti from early 2011. These countries have already signed agreements to import electricity from Ethiopia.

The transmission lines have been constructed using funds from the World Bank.

In addition, currently Ethiopia is undertaking massive investment into hydro-electric power projects, with the intention of becoming the leader in power generation in the sub-region. According to EEPCo, there is a plan to increase the country’s power capacity to 10 GW in the next 5-10 years. Currently, Ethiopia has a generating capacity of 2 GW.