Ethiopia sold 606.5 GWH of energy to neighboring countries worth Birr 2.9 billion in the 10 months of 2014/15, even if it has planned to sell 685 GWH.

The planned energy production was 7,462 GWH in this period, but it reached 7,923 GWH and generated Birr 3.5 billion from exports to Djibouti and border towns of Kenya and Sudan.

Ethiopia had planned to generate 10,000 MW of electric power by the end of the five years of the GTP I, yet it has only attained 2,301 MW.

The installation of electric carriage lines in Ethiopia was planned to reach 17,000 KM from 11,440 KM, but now stands at 12,825 KM. Electricity access was also planned to rise to 75 percent from 41 percent, but now reached at 55 percent.

“We have identified 290 Weredas with critical problems and we are working to improve electricity access in these places,” said Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Ministry of Water, Irrigation & Energy (MoWIE). “These places have problems related to poles, which we are changing to concrete poles to solve the problem.”

Bezuneh Tolcha, Communications Director at the MoWIE, said the organizing associations that can produce poles have slowed the accessibility of electricity in the rural parts of the country.

MoWIE has organized 139 associations for the production of concrete poles and 129 associations for the installation of electric lines.

Source: Addis Fortune