During the last 8 months of the current fiscal year, Ethiopia earned about 123 million USD, which is equivalent to 2.6 billion Birr, from the sale of electricity both for the local market and international market.

While presenting to the House of Peoples’ Representative, Motuma Mekassa, Minister for Water, Irrigation and Electricity, said “the Ethiopian Electric Service in general has collected a total of 2.6 billion birr in eight months, achieving 82 per cent of its target.”

Nevertheless, when presenting the achievements, the Minister failed to breakdown the earnings from export and local sales.

The East African nation sold electricity to its neighbors Djibouti and Sudan. The country is also constructing power system that has a capacity of carrying 500 kilovolt. The construction is now 29 percent complete.

The Minister has also explained to the House progress has been made with regards to the constructions of power station and the expansion of transmission lines to 9 industrial zones.

Ethiopia is undertaking construction of 8 power stations, including the Grand Renaissance Dam which upon completion will generate 6,000 megawatts, according to Motuma. It is now 50 percent complete.

Motuma also presented to the members of the House that during the 8 months the government only managed to provide power to only 20 percent of the 390,000 customers it aimed. “The performance was poor mainly because of the delay in the provision of equipment,” he added. A contract worth 1.44 billion Birr has been concluded and some equipment are on their way while others are being manufactured locally.

The power distributor has also failed to meet its target regard to providing the total power needed fpr the mew Ethio-Djibouti railway. The plan was to fully provide power to the railway the latest on November 2015 and the earliest 2014.

Nevertheless, the Minister noted, it was only possible to achieve 36 percent of the target.

Source: today.ng