Addis Abeba’s power outages won’t be solved soon: Experts

ESAT News

October 25, 2014

The power outages and shortage in Addis Abeba is making the lives of many people difficult that many people are being forced to dump the dough they have prepared for bakery due to sudden power disruptions. The staff and vehicles of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation often get attacked by angry citizens, experts working in the Corporation said.

Experts of the Corporation say the government’s refusal to take the plan of expanding the City’s electricity delivery on board is the main cause for the current crisis. Dr. Debretsion, the Minister of Communication, had recently said that the expansion work set to be completed before the end of June, has been given to a Chinese company. The experts say no work has so far started and it may not even be completed within five years let alone ten months.

 The current electric lines are forty years old; the experts wonder how the government will get sufficient power to run the Rail Lines currently under construction.

 The shortage of power is forcing the government to provide electricity to factories in Addis Abeba on shift.

 Similarly, a large number of people are waiting to get electric meters in their houses. Three years ago the Ethiopian Defense Engineering had received 15 million birr from the Corporation to produce Master Electric Meters; however it has not produced any on time. The Defense Engineering did not also produce the transformers and other materials on time.

ESAT’s efforts to get the responses of the officials on the raised issues were unsuccessful.