Officials from Ethiopia and Kenya are working out the details for a power supply agreement. Ethiopia expects to supply Kenya with an initial 400 MW of electricity by the end of 2015.
Alemayehu Tegenu, Water and Energy Minister, is leading the Ethiopian delegation in discussions with Kenyan officials led by Kiraitu Murungi, Kenyan Energy Minister.
The two countries will construct over 1,000 Kilometers power interconnection lines to facilitate the power supply. It is expected that Ethiopia will construct 443 Kilometers of lines and 612 Kilometers will be constructed by Kenya.The lines to be built between the two countries will have the capacity to carry 2000 MW. The construction of the interconnecting lines is expected to be funded by the African Development Bank and the World Bank.
It is to be remembered that leaders from Ethiopia and Djibouti inaugurated the substation linking Djibouti to the Ethiopian power grid this October. It was described as a milestone in linking the economies of the two countries by Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
More than 90% of the project was financed by loans and grants from the African Development Bank (AfDB). The project is thought to be very crucial to Djibouti which generated energy from diesel generators.
The memorandum of understanding for power purchase agreement was signed in April 2008 but it took two years to finalize the 25-year agreement.
Source: Africa Report
