Africa-Press – Ethiopia. Addis Ababa, February 18/2021(ENA) Kenya announced to complete the connection of its national grid with Ethiopia’s by June this year.
Kenyan Energy Cabinet Secretary, Charles Keter told Pumps-Africa media that the new connection will be ready for commissioning at the end of three months.
“Kenya will venture into the power trade businesses with this new regional interconnect. We view this as a critical installation to the development of the country,” he said.
The Ethiopia-Kenya Inter-connector is the longest transmission line in East and Central Africa, it was indicated.
The 1,045km line interconnect at the Moyale common border and has the capacity to carry 2,000 MW of electricity in either direction, the capacity being higher than Kenya’s current maximum consumption of about 1,900 MW.
Construction has completed on the Ethiopia’s side while Kenya’s side completed over 90 percent and is expected to go live early next year.
According to Keter, Kenya is subsequently expected to round off on power purchase discussions with Ethiopia allowing the pair to undertake alternative power purchases when the inter-connector goes live.
The Kenya-Ethiopia project will enable cross-border trade of reliable and affordable energy from the East African region and eventually to the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP), through Tanzania.
The project is expected to integrate power systems of five countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda under the Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP) Master Plan.
The plan seeks to take advantage of excess capacity within the network and facilitate trade of electricity between member countries.
Kenya-Ethiopia interconnector line, also known as the Eastern Electricity Highway, is Kenya’s first direct current (DC) line having 500kV high-voltage direct current (HVDC).
