Despite Vast Hydropower Potential, Ethiopia Struggles to Meet Power Demand

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Ethiopia has an area of almost 425,000 square miles (1.1 million square kilometers) and a population of 75.8 million people. The country has many energy-related natural resources such as natural gas and hydropower, as well as mineral resources, including small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is a government-owned utility, responsible for the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity in the country. EEPCo maintains two power supply systems:

• the Interconnected System (ICS), containing:
• nine hydropower plants with a total installed capacity of 1082.6 megawatts (MW)
• one geothermal plant with a capacity of 7.3 MW
• 12 diesel generators with a total capacity of 172.3 MW
• the Self-Contained System, which contains:
• three small hydro plants with a total capacity of 6.15 MW
• isolated diesel stations with a total capacity of about 30 MW

The total installed capacity is about 1,262.2 MW. Annual energy production in 2009 was about 3,728 gigawatt-hours.

The diesel generators were generally meant to boost power during seasonal shortfalls at the hydropower stations. However, demand remains higher than generation capacity, so the diesel generators are working continuously to compensate for the shortage.

EEPCO currently provides electricity to about 2 million customers, a small portion of the population. According to current estimates, only about 32% of the population has access to electricity.

Ethiopia has the following power resources:

• hydropower - 45,000 MW of potential power
• natural gas - 100 billion cubic meters of reserves
• geothermal energy - 5,000 MW of potential
• wind energy- 10,000 MW of potential power potential
• coal reserves - 300 million tons
• average solar radiation - 5.2 kilowatt-hours per square meter
• average wind speed - 7 meters per second

Obviously, Ethiopia is endowed with a huge hydropower potential, in addition to several other natural resources. Not only could Ethiopia meet its own needs, but is considering projects that would allow the company to export power to countries such as Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya.

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