Ethiopia power scarcity approaching complete blackout

Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA (The Reporter) — Electric power outage is becoming one of the most devastating problems in contemporary Ethiopia. It appears to be routine practice living without light every two days, where the power sources are dominantly depend on rain-fed dams.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), in its latest announcement, disclosed that power will be interrupted for 18 hours per shedding day for 15 days between June and July. The new schedule, which divided the nation in two groups and covers cities, towns, kebeles as well as villages, is now starting to be implemented from June 9 to July 7. Many fear that if the rain would not fall and the dams continue running short of water, the whole country would face a complete blackout. Currently, all major manufacturing firms are disconnected from the national power grid, and EEPCo told flour mills and other manufacturing firms across the nation to use electric power economically only during less power load. This time the corporation, which is already in a power crisis, is idly waiting for the rain instead of searching for other alternative sources of electric power. Its officials are too busy in telling stories about incomplete hydropower stations.

Addis Ababa, the seat of the federal government and many international organizations could not escape the frequent power shedding due to acute shortage of power. While the untapped hydropower potential of the country stands at 30,000 MW, the total installed capacity of the national grid from hydropower, diesel and geothermal sources is only 870 MW.

According to official figures, the national electric power demand gap is an alarming 120 MW, while the annual power demand growth is going up by 16 percent.