Executive Directors of the African Development Bank Group have approved a loan and a grant amounting to USD 101.5 million for the rehabilitation of power systems in Ethiopia.
According a statement it released on Thursday from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the bank said, the USD 86.26 million loan and USD 15.20 million grant from the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the AfDB Group will be used to finance the rehabilitation and upgrading of power transmission and distribution Systems in the capital, Addis Ababa.
The statement further not that the Bank also financed the systems’ distribution master plan study in 2015.
The Project, to be completed in three years, involves rehabilitation and construction of 545 km of medium voltage lines, replacement and installation of 582 distribution transformers, 14 primary substations and establishment of supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) for operations and control. It also includes upgrading nine existing high voltage substations and construction of one 132 KV, 3.8 km double circuit overhead line.
The project will support Ethiopia government’s efforts to remove constraints on the electricity infrastructure; meet growing demand in the capital city and its environs; replace obsolete equipment to reduce energy losses and overloads, all which aim to improve the quality of electricity supply. It will also address the connection backlogs estimated at 432,000 due to inadequate distribution capacity.
The project is aligned with the Banks Ten Year strategy (2012-2022), the New Deal on Energy for Africa and the High 5 priorities, especially with regards to Power Industrialization and improve living standards. It is also in line with the current Bank’s Country Strategy Paper (2016-2020) which focuses on infrastructure development.
The Bank’s intervention is aligned with Ethiopia’s long-term development blueprint GTP-II plan (2016-2020) which has energy infrastructure development as one of the main pillars.
Housing, commercial and industrial centers, the new light rail system and medium businesses are among the direct beneficiaries of the project.
The AfDB, Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Government of Ethiopia are funding the project to the tune of USD 216.87 million.
