The 2,000-Mega Watts (MW) Ethio-Kenya Transmission line, which is being constructed by China Electric Power Equipment and Technology (CEP), is expected to be ready by the end of 2017.
The statement was made available to Xinhua on Tuesday by Bizuneh Tolcha, the Public Relations and Communications Director at Ethipian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity (MoWIE).
He says 433 km of the 1,045 km long electricity transmission line, which is in Ethiopian territory, is expected to be completed.
CEP has already finished a 1.2 billion dollars high voltage transmission line from an under-construction 6,450 MW dam on Blue Nile river near the Sudanese border to the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
The electricity transmission line will have the capacity to transmit 2,000 MW although current agreements between Ethiopia and Kenya means the former will only sell 400 MW of energy initially.
The 26 months project, which will cost 269.7 million U.S. dollars, is expected to need around 270 million dollars to finish with the World Bank (WB) and African Development Bank (AfDB) covering the cost.
Tolcha though said, Ethiopia will only start exporting electricity once a separate converter station project being undertaken by German firm Siemens at a cost 629 million dollars is completed in 2019.
Ethiopia currently sells 100 MW of electricity to Sudan and around 80 MW to Djibouti. Enditem
Source: Xinhua/NewsGhana.com.gh
