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A week after the Ethiopian Electric Power
Corporation (EEPCO) stated that there was no
shortage of power in the country, the management on
Thursday April 3 admitted that a power shortage has
occurred due to the prolonged absence of Belg rain.
In a press conference held at the Corporation's
club, Meheret Debebe, general manager of EEPCO said:
"Failure of belg rain, compounded by the evaporation
of water from dams, has caused a power shortage in
the country amid increasing demand for power. Dams
need to be filled to operate to their full
capacity".
According to Meheret, the corporation is therefore
forced to use diesel power and water pumps to
supplement power in the central grid incurring close
to 100 million Birr in fuel costs.
Following the power interruption in Addis Abeba and
1,800 cities all over the country for six hours, the
corporation has made a recent statement that it is
undertaking maintenance tasks before the summer rain
which might cause problems in the transmission
lines.
According to the Meheret, the much awaited for
Tekeze Hydropower Project that was constructed on
Tekeze River is being finalized, hopefully to be
inaugurated in July, 2008 if completed on schedule.
The Tekeze (300mw) project would be able to curb the
power shortage if completed in time, otherwise the
country can only hope for heavy down pour and floods
in the coming summer, Mihret noted.
According to the corporation, the power demand in
April 2007 was 376.32mw, which grew to 391.81mw in
June 2007.
The demand increase for power showed a 12pc rise in
2008 compared to similar period in 2007. It was also
noted that the demand for power in the rest of the
Ethiopian fiscal year would grow by 13pc.
The corporation had told Fortune that the
recent power interruptions were not due to a power
shortage but due to extended maintenance tasks the
corporation were undertaking.
Sendeku Araya, public relations head of EEPCO said
that the corporation has so far planted 21
medium-sized diesel generators in all corners of
Addis Abeba, especially in Meskel Square, Bole,
Mexico, around African Union, Arat Kilo and Semen
Mazegaja.
The corporation has also installed five water pumps
in collaboration with the Addis Abeba Water and
Sewerage Authority at Teferi Mekonen, Jan Meda, Geja
Sefer and Ras Hailu.
According to Sendeku, EEPCO also has plans to add
24 generators to satisfy the current need for
electricity.
EEPCo is working on additional power projects in
Tekeze, Gigel Gibe II, Beles, Windmill, Finchaa,
Amerti Neshi and Gilgel Gibe III and when these
projects are finalized, the country will have a
total electric power of 3270mw.
The corporation has managed to connect 350 thousand
customers in the current Ethiopian fiscal year and
plans to connect the same number of customers in the
next two years.
At present, the corporation has a geographical
coverage of 22pc of the country and hopes to cover
50pc by 2010.
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