General Electric has completed its Electricity Transmission Improvement Turnkey Project for southern and south-western Ethiopia, worth a reported $40 million.
The project, completed in partnership with the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power, will improve electricity access through new substations and bulk transfer of power. In a statement released last week, the company said that the substations would increase economic activity in southern part of Ethiopia and raise access to reliable supply of electricity in several towns.
Although the power grid covers 60 percent of towns in Ethiopia, 30 percent of Ethiopians still do not have access to electricity. In the statement Lazarus Angbazo, Regional Leader for General Electric’s Grid Solutions Business in Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “There is an urgent need for household electrification. This project will significantly reduce high transmission losses while improving system efficiency, stability and reliability”.
“This project will support overall electrification plans of Ethiopia, provide sustainable power and allow the transmission of reliable power from the interconnected system to demand centers across the country and in the region,” added Wudineh Yemane, Project Manager at Ethiopian Electric Power.
