|
|
Ethiopia: EEPCo Signs Agreements for Djibouti Power Export
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
10 September 2007
Posted to the web 10 September 2007
Issayas Mekuria
Meheret Debebe looks delighted to see that very soon his company will start generating foreign currency.
The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) signed a series of agreements with a combined value of 393 million Br with Indian, Italian and French companies for the installation of transmission lines, the construction of substations and border towns' electrification on Thursday, September 6, 2007.
The largest contractual agreement worth 197 million Br went to Indian Kalapa-Taru, which will install a 210Km-230Kv transmission line stretching from Dire Dawa, 515km east of Addis Abeba, to Djibouti.
Of the total cost, the African Development Bank (AfDB) will finance 119 million Br while EEPCo will take care of the balance.
It was in February 2007 that EEPCo floated a tender looking for a company that would construct transmission lines. The competent bidders at the time other than the winner were the Spanish Cymi-Socoin, French ETDE and Indian KEC.
When the joint committee drawn from Ethiopia and Djibouti opened the offers of the companies, Kalapa-Taru offered the lowest bid, 30.8 million dollars, while Cymi-Socoin, ETDE and KEC offered 41.3 million dollars, 36.9 million dollars and 48.1 million dollars respectively.
The Corporation initially set out to construct a 230Kv and 63Kv single circuit transmission line. However, an evaluation of the Corporation's study by consultants - PB Power and RSWI - hired by EEPCo, revealed that the single circuit transmission line should be upgraded to a double circuit, as the former would not address the increasing power demand of Djibouti. Subsequently, the winner also increased its offer to 36.8 million dollars.
Upon the signing ceremony with EEPCo, a Vice President of International Projects, S. Mukherjee of Kalapa-Taru, vowed to finalise the project according to the schedule and standard of the two power corporations.
The second largest contractual agreement was signed between the French ETDE and the Corporation for the electrification of border towns - Adigala, Biykobe, Lazarat, Harewa, Mild, Ayasha Dewele and Gelile.
For this project, ETDE will receive 114 million Br of which the AfDB finances 62 million Br while EEPCo covers the rest. The only bidder other than ETDE in February was KEC, which offered 16.2 million dollars.
"We want to carefully finalise this project, which is our first commitment in the country and work with the Corporation in future projects," said ETDE's Commercial Manager of Africa, Jerome Douat, at the signing ceremony.
The third company, which signed an agreement with the Corporation the same day, the Italian Siemens S.p.A., won the bid for the construction of a 230Kv extension to the existing substation in Dire Dawa and a new 230/30Kv substation in the border town Adigala. Siemens secured 82 million Br for this project, 56 million Br being covered by AfDB. Other substation bidders falling behind the Italian company are Cymi and ETDE, which offered 31 million dollars and 31.2 million dollars.
"We will hand over the substation working as fast and as meticulously as we can to satisfy our long time partner, EEPCo," said a Siemens representative.
Mihiret Debebe, EEPCo general manager, who signed the agreements with the three companies, stressed that this new effort of exporting electric power is important to the two countries then the contractors should be finalised in accordance with the schedule.
All three projects are expected to be completed in 20 months.
The Djibouti Ambassador also emphasised that the agreement means a lot to Djibouti, which depends on diesel generators for its power demand, in terms of minimising cost.
Finalising the deal with EEPCo, the three companies left for Djibouti to sign a similar contract with the Djibouti authorities. Allocating 25.6 million dollars for the projects, the Djibouti officials are expected to sign an agreement with the companies today, September 9.
Envisaging on demonstrating ways in which Ethiopia could export power to Djibouti, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) prepared a Power Planning Study in 1982 and finalised a feasibility study for the interconnection of the Ethiopia-Djibouti Power System in 1989 that was accepted by governments of the two countries.
Hence the two countries jointly requested AfDB to finance the project on credit in November 2002; Ethiopia requested 30.4 million dollars and Djibouti 25.6 million dollars. Having examined the request for two years, AfDB approved the loan in December 2004.
|
The two countries' ministries of finance are now under preparation to request over 40 million dollars of additional budget from AfDB. Considering the request, AfDB, said last week it has no objection on the selection of the winning companies for this project.
According to the schedule, the Ethiopia-Djibouti Interconnection project would go operational in 2009. An estimated 36,000 customers are expected to get hydroelectric power supply in Djibouti, as well as over 8,600 beneficiaries in border towns of Ethiopia.
When the project is finalised, Djibouti is expected to pay 80 million dollars annually for the hydroelectric power the country imports from Ethiopia.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2007 Addis Fortune. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
