New Ethiopia-Kenya power project should boost development

The Government continues to expand power generation so as to meet the 5,000MW target in the Jubilee manifesto.

One project that deserves special mention is the Ethiopia-Kenya line that is being constructed over 1,045 km from Wolyatasodo in Ethiopia to Suswa in Kenya.

Suswa is a critical hub that will serve as an entry into the national grid and exchange point to facilitate power trade within the East African power pool.

The project also involves construction at Suswa of a Sh23 billion high voltage direct current converter sub-station funded by World Bank. This sub-station is an important component of Ethiopia-Kenya inter-connector linking the two national grids.

The Ethiopia-Kenya line is supposed to be completed by the end of 2018 while the sub-station should be ready a year earlier.

The project has a transmission capacity of 2,000 MW either way and will make power cheaper by almost half.

Kenya might actually realise its dream of pushing manufacturing up to 40 per cent of GDP like some Asian Tigers. This would be the key in shilling stability and inflation control. It would also make the work of Central Bank easy.