Aljazeera || Ethiopia has started to ration electricity for domestic and industrial customers after a drop in water levels in hydroelectric dams led to a production deficit.
Ethiopia’s minister for water and electricity Seleshi Bekele said on Friday that the drop in water levels at the country’s Gibe 3 dam led to a deficit of 476 megawatts (MW), more than a third of the country’s electricity generation of 1,400 MW. Ethiopia also suspended electricity exports to neighbouring Djibouti and Sudan, which earns the country $180m a year, the minister said.
Under the rationing programme, which runs until July, domestic consumers will face blackouts for several hours each day, while cement and steel firms will have to operate fewer shifts due to the cuts, Seleshi said. Ethiopia’s $4bn dam project on the Nile river, which has been beset by construction delays and criticism from Egypt, is expected to start initial operations in December 2020.
The project has caused problems with Egypt, which fears the dam will restrict Nile river waters coming down from Ethiopia’s highlands through the deserts of Sudan to the Egyptian fields and reservoirs. The planned 6,000-megawatt Grand Renaissance Dam is the centrepiece of Ethiopia’s bid to become Africa’s biggest power exporter.
This is a sign of growth. I am not surprised. Italy, Germany and other European industrial countries of the 1960’s had similar power shortage problems. Those of you who had the chance to work with factories in China especially in the 1990’s and 2000’s remember similar headaches. Almost every busy factory was forced to buy and install power generators adding to the growing problem of pollution(smog). But many factories continued humming therefore production continued to make and ship products with understandable delays. There is one glaring reality that is there now and will be even more pressing as the country continues to wire up more and more residences. Given industrialization will intensify with rewarding dividends for the common man/woman current mud houses will be replaced with at least with tin-roofed sturdier ones making it is easier for wiring. I believe the conviction and enthusiasm gripping the planners there is there is enough raging river water to generate the electricity the nation will need for ever. That could be true now. The concern others may have about this is based on the meteorological history of the country with its erratic rainfall from year to year. There can be deadly flooding in one half of the country and not even a single drop on the other. Geothermal and wind can provide relief but not for the whole shortage. That will leave them with only one option which is to look into Nuclear power plants and that may pose security issues especially if the country goes back rogue on human and democratic rights. I believe the old country has more than enough intellectual horsepower in terms of engineers to figure it all out provided they are left alone with their device in peace!!!