Ethiopian Review

Alarmed by the declining water levels in the hydropower dams the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation has advised cement and other big factories that need huge electric power to stop production until end of this month.

Mihret Debebe, EEPCo’s CEO, told The Reporter that with the view to mitigate the power shortage the corporation told the factories to undertake maintenance work until the end of the current month.

EEPCo has once again started a power shedding program all over the nation. Unable to meet the growing demand for electric power, which is now 24 percent, EEPCo said there was power outage six days a month for fourteen hours a day. There is now a periodic power interruption from 9:00 a.m. up to 10:00 p.m. six days a month. The corporation said the power deficit has reached 160 MW at peak hours. The country’s total generation capacity is 814 MW. The corporation attributed the power shortage to the fast growing investment projects in the nation and the delay encountered in two (Gibe II and Tekeze) of the five dams under construction.

To mitigate the growing demand, the corporation late in December installed two generators each having the capacity of 30 MW in Adama and Bishoftu towns. The corporation was anticipating to lease the third generator with the capacity of 60 MW to be installed in Addis Ababa. The World Bank has agreed to finance the lease and the corporation has put up a tender. However, due to the bureaucratic process of the World Bank it was unable to release the fund on time. “They could not provide us the loan according to schedule. We needed the generator for this bad time so we dropped the case,” Mihret said.

In a related news the corporation concluded on Thursday a 210 million euros loan agreement with France to finance the construction of Ashegoda wind power project. The fund is secured from French financing firms. The project was conceived to have an installed capacity of 120 MW along with an annual energy production of 400 to 450 GWH and an investment size of 210 million euros. Ashegoda is found in the Tigray regional state near Mekelle. The project is the first of its kind in the country. The project has an implementation schedule of 36 months from the date of commencement to bring the whole wind energy converter units into commercial operation. However, the first phase yielding 30 MW capacity will be commissioned in 16 months after contract commencement.

The financing arrangement for the project is based on buyer’s credit that was proposed through the tender where EEPCo directly receives the loan from lenders. Mihret said it was a mix of concessional and two types of commercial loans. EEPCo secured the loan from Agence Francase de Developemnt (AFD) and BNP Paribas.

- By Kaleyesus Bekele | The Reporter