ETHIOPIA: $104 million in funding to strengthen the electricity system in the east
The Ethiopian government secures $104 million in funding from Korea's Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) for strengthening power supply in the east of the country.
Addis Ababa has just obtained funding of 104 million for electricity transmission in the east of the country. Financing is provided equally by the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional lending window of the African Development Bank (AfDB) group, and by the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of Korea, “under the Korea-Africa Energy Investment Framework Agreement” , indicates the ADB.
The financing will support the authorities' effort to strengthen electricity transmission in the eastern part of the country. To do this, 157 km of double-circuit 400 kilovolt transmission line will be installed. Substations will also be built in the localities of Harar, Jijiga and Fafem. For the ADB, strengthening electricity transmission in the east of the country is a vector of development.
Power supply of irrigation system
Batchi Baldeh, director of electricity systems development at the ADB, believes that “improving the electricity network in the east of the country will make it possible to remedy power outages and load shedding in the region, to connect more industries and households to the electricity grid and to eliminate the use of diesel generators, which currently provide a basic electricity supply.
The availability of electricity should also accompany the implementation of the Regional Agricultural Irrigation Program. The Ethiopian government's initiative aims to deploy irrigation systems on at least 462,174 hectares of agricultural land in a drought-prone region. Strengthening the electricity transmission system will also allow preparations for the sale of electricity to Somalia, a country in the Horn of Africa which does not yet have a unified electricity network due to the ongoing civil war there. since 2006.
Ethiopia wants to become the energy power of East Africa through the construction of immense infrastructure, notably the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) which will have a capacity of 5,250 MW, the equivalent of the installed capacity of a country like Ghana (5,326 MW). Ethiopia already exports its electricity to Djibouti.
