Tipping the power balance

The Ethiopian dream to literally become the powerhouse of Africa was born out of its own internal challenge to satisfy it ever growing electricity demand. In the process, the Ethiopian power sector has come into a realization that it is favorably positioned to supply the border towns of neighbor countries like Kenya, Djibouti and Sudan. Later on, the state power company has expanded its horizon to incorporate most of the east and central African nations under its power grid not to mention a roadmap to export power to some countries in Middle East all the way up to Turkey. In the meantime, the Government of Ethiopia has realized that power is not merely an economic entity but something that could help the country sway some of the political clout in the region. Currently, having around 4000MW of installed generating capacity, Ethiopia is still dreaming big; that is upping its generating capacity to 17,320 MW by end of GTP II and becoming a middle income country.