Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation (EEPCo) has said that a test run has been launched for the supply of electricity to neighbouring Sudan
EEPCo head Mihret Debeb said that Ethiopia has been running power supply tests since the completion of the Ethiopia-Sudan transmission line.
The 230kV cross-border transmission line stretches for 296km from Ethiopia to Sudan. Financed by the World Bank, the US$41mn power project has three sections: the 137.2km-long Bahir Dar-Gondar section, the 122km-long Gondar-Shehedie section and the 37km-long Shehedie-Metema stretch.
Debeb revealed that Sudan was being provided with 100MW of electricity via the Gedaref-Galabat transmission line, which will in the long-term enable Khartoum to replace its thermal power generating units with Ethiopia’s renewable and clean hydro-power generated energy.
According to Debeb, Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir will soon visit Ethiopia to attend the project’s official inauguration ceremony.
The final section of the Ethiopia-Sudan power project will connect with a transmission line in the eastern Sudanese city of Gedaref, which will join the power grids of the two countries.
The Ethiopia-Sudan Transmission Line Project will eventually link Ethiopia’s hydro-electric power source to the rest of East Africa via projects between Ethiopia-Kenya, Tanzania-Zambia-Kenya-Uganda and Ethiopia-Sudan-Egypt.
