Ethiopia is working to engage the private sector in power investment with a combined capital of 12 billion US dollars over the coming four years, according to the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity.
The move allows the private sector to produce 9,400 MW from solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal energy, thus assisting government’s target of raising nation’s power generation capacity to 18,000MW by the end of the second GTP period.
In order to attain the target, the government is encouraging the private sector to engage in the power sector, besides the power projects it has been building by its own resource and loan it secured from financiers, said Motuma Makassa, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity.
He said the government has prepared an independent power producers (IPP) document, a key vehicle for securing electricity capacity from the private sector, he said.
Engineer Azeb Asnake, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), said the private sector is expected to generate 5,000 MW from solar, 3,600 MW from wind, 500 MW from geothermal and 300MW from hydropower in the second GTP period.
Ethiopia requires more than 35 billion US dollars for power investment in the second GTP period, of which 26 billion will be covered by the private sector.
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