Lag in Transmission Lines Compels Systematic Power Shedding by EEPCo
Despite recent deluges of heavy rain, rivers roaring with water, and
dams filling up, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) is
still unable to deliver power to its clients across the country in an
uninterrupted and sustainable way.
Almost all of the 10 dams, which the corporation operates, are nearly
full or already up to their brims, with the exception of Tekeze. These
dams have a combined generate capacity of 1,754MW, which is supposedly
above the current national demand for electric power. Yet, erratic
power interruptions, particularly during peak hours in the mornings
and evenings, remain in place, which is a practice that experts say is
part of the corporation�s systematic power shedding.
Senior managers at the EEPCo and top officials in the government
administration thought they had the power shortage problem behind them
when the 7.1 billion Br Tana Beles Hydropower Plant came online, the
third hydropower plant inaugurated during the 2009/10 budget year,
following the launch of Tekeze Hydropower Plant (300MW) in November
2009, in Tigray Regional State, and Gilgel Gibe II (420MW), in January
2010, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP)
Regional State.
However, due to the corporation�s inability to transmit and distribute
the power they currently produce, it has been forced to utilise a
systematic power shedding scheme, according to knowledgeable sources.
�There is hardly any issue with the ability to generate
[electricity],� an expert in the power generation sector told Fortune.
The latest interruptions are largely due to the ageing, inadequate,
outdated transmission lines that the EEPCo uses in the grid, Fortune
learnt.
One glaring case is a 400kV transmission line stretching from the Tana
Beles Dam to a substation that has not been completed, despite plans
to do so before the rainy season, in Gefersa, Oromia Special Zone, on
the outskirts of Addis Abeba.
Located on the shores of Lake Tana, Tana Beles is the largest
operating hydropower plant in Ethiopia as of yet, inaugurated in May
2010, with a generating capacity of 460MW. The water gushes through
its 26km tunnel and falls 275 metres down onto four turbines, each
with a capacity to generate 115MW. The water then flows out of the
plant and is further used for irrigation purposes.
Yet the power it is generating is not reaching its intended recipients
across the country.
The transmission lines (top), that carry the electricity from Tana
Beles hydropower plant on the shores of Lake Tana, reach only as far
as Muke Turi, Oromia Regional State, 75km from Addis Abeba. An
incomplete pole (bottom) for the transmission lines, nears completion
at Muke Turi, 75km from Addis Abeba.
�This is the first time in the EEPCo�s history that a dam has been
completed long before the transmission lines,� senior managers in the
power generation and construction department of the EEPCo confirmed.
Contracted to the Chinese Shanghai Electric Corporation, along with
two local companies, this transmission line was originally scheduled
for completion in June 2010. The 227km long transmission line is
designed to pass through Bahir Dar, Debre Markos (both in the Amhara
Regional State) and Sululta in the Oromia Special Zone, before it
winds up in Gefersa to increase the distribution of power supplied to
Addis Abeba and the surrounding areas. Until a few months ago, total
the area consumed 40pc of the nearly 4,000GWh of national production.
However, the erection of poles for the transmission lines has so far
only made it to Sululta, a township on the north-western outskirts of
Addis Abeba. Their cables, however, have not even made it that far,
reaching just short of Muke Turi, Oromia Regional State, 75km from the
capital. Chinese experts and local labourers are working along the
main highway, with different teams deployed to do foundation,
construction, and cabling work.
�We have been working on this for over a year and a half,� Brehanu,
23, a resident of Sululta, told Fortune last week.
He was working on the building of one of the 455 terminals at a place
53km from Sululta.
He started work with the Chinese contractor as a foreman, Brehanu told
Fortune. The team he belongs to, comprising of Chinese and Ethiopians
who communicate in a hybrid of Mandarin and Amharic, has been working
daily, including holidays.
Earning a wage of 25 Br per day, labourers and their Chinese
supervisors only pause when the rains are very hard, which has been
fairly frequent in recent weeks. Despite the heavy rains, the
contractors are frantically working to finish the project.
With the cables stopped short of Muke Turi, the EEPCo resorted to
connecting the plant to the national grid by redirecting it through an
existing 230kV line in Bahir Dar, almost half the voltage that Tana
Beles produces.
�This cascading of power causes constraints in the transmission and
distribution of the available power,� a senior official at the EEPCo,
told Fortune. �The problem has occurred because of the delay in the
design and erection of the transmission lines.�
This has been a major headache for managers at the EEPCo, who had to
utilise massive power shedding schemes last year. At the height of
these schemes, households were only getting power every other day with
factories forced to use their own generators, getting power from the
EEPCo only during off-peak hours. Undeclared power shedding for
factories is still enforced by the EEPCo, sources disclosed.
The last stretch of the construction of the transmission poles and
installation of cable lines is expected to be completed by the end of
October, transmitting the full power generation capacity of the Tana
Beles Plant to Addis Abeba and its surrounding areas, according to
managers in the power generation and construction department.
However, this is not the only reason for the frequent power
interruptions that have been occurring in the capital during the past
month, according to another manager in the distribution department of
the EEPCo.
�The rainy season has been particularly hard, causing many trees to
fall on transmission lines, knocking down some of the old poles,� the
distribution manager explained. �The laying of new underground and
overhead cables is another reason, but we announced the time and date
when power will be interrupted to connect these cables to the main
lines� on FM radio stations.
There are additional dams on the EEPCo�s drawing board, such as
Amertinesh, a 1.6 billion Br project to be completed in 2010/11;
Gilgel Gibe III, a 17.6 billion Br project, the biggest of all and
about 35pc completed; and Ashegoda Wind Power Farm, a 2.3 billion Br
project.
The five-year government economic plan that was announced last week
projected the power generation capacity of Ethiopia to reach 8,000MW
by 2015.
With the expansion comes a renewed challenge for the EEPCo to upgrade
the existing transmission lines and to build new ones, experts
cautioned.
The EEPCo plans to complete the construction of the substations in
Bahir Dar, Debre Markos, and Sululta, with a capacity to transform the
400kV electric power generated by Tana Beles to industrial and
household levels, as well as the installation of the transmission
cable lines between them by the inauguration of the Tana Beles Power
Station.
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