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Campaigning against the poor state of electrification in Ethiopia
Bereket Gebru
Sources indicate that Emperor Menelik II introduced hydro-electric energy to Ethiopia in 1911/12. That leaves Ethiopia with over a century of history with electricity. Considering the whole world was still getting acquainted with the technology at that time, Ethiopia definitely set out in time to catch up with the front runners.
Fast forward a hundred five years and Ethiopia is considered as one of the African countries with the least level of electrification. A 2016 report on rural electrification by the Ministry of water, irrigation and electricity states that only 23% of towns and rural villages are electrified. Another report on the Ethiopian electrification program states that the household electrification rate was about just 15% in 2016. The country that adopted hydro electric energy a century ago produced only 850MW as recently as 2005.
The figures clearly indicate that only a small section of the Ethiopian households enjoy electricity via the grid system, despite the effort to spread access starting over a century ago. It is also common knowledge that the electrified households do not get a reliable service as there are power interruptions and blackouts on daily and weekly basis. Such problems are prevalent not only in small towns but also in big cities including the capital Addis Ababa.
The trends in the country during the last fifteen years have, however, been positive with double digit growth and tremendous expansion of infrastructure identified as the characteristic features of the country. Ethiopia is nowadays the fastest growing economy in the world with the system proving mature enough to stand up against the drought cycle that hits the country every decade. The social development index for the country has shown significant progress over these past fifteen years.
The general change in the economy has, as expected, impacted the energy sector. Accordingly, the energy generated rose from 850MW in 2005 to 2,360MW in 2015. The country is also working hard to shoot up that number to 17,000MW by 2020. This tremendous increase in the energy generation capacity of the country is obviously going to help alleviate the energy problem of households.
The country has set goals of becoming an industrial economy and a hub of electric energy in the region. In the process, the local demand for energy is expected to be met with the surplus put up for sale. Accordingly, there is a bright future for electrification in the country as renewable energy takes centre stage in fulfilling the surging demand for energy.
As pointed out earlier, the grid system has managed to provide access to only a quarter of the country’s population. It could take decades to provide coverage to three quarters of the population. Therefore, efforts towards electrification call for the expansion of grid and off-grid mechanisms.
Grid Expansion
In 2005, the GoE launched the ambitious ‘Universal Electricity Access Program’ (UEAP) with the specific objective to provide grid-based electrification to rural towns and villages. While UEAP constitutes one of the most significant grid expansion programs in Africa; thus far, the focus has been on connecting the town and villages, but not as much on household connections. Between 2005 and 2015, electricity grid was spread to about 6,000 towns and villages from the initial 667, grid coverage reached 60 percent of the towns in the country; however, the household electrification rate remains quite low at about 15 percent, with over 60 million people left without access to electricity (second highest access deficit in Africa).
Ethiopia is well endowed with renewable energy sources, with approximately 45,000 MW of exploitable hydropower potential. Currently hydropower accounts for nearly 90 percent of generation capacity. In recent years, Ethiopia has made major strides in increasing generation capacity. Large scale hydropower projects, most notably the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD 6,000 MW), is in advanced stages of construction. Also, Gibe-III Hydropower Project (1,870 MW) is nearing full commissioning. In total, the installed capacity is expected to increase from 2,360 MW to 4,256 MW by the end of 2016. The GoE aims to have over 17,000 MW of installed capacity by 2020.
The GoE also plans to aggressively develop other energy clean sources to mitigate the risk of overreliance on hydropower by involving the private sector. The GoE intends to massively scale up its solar, wind, and geothermal power generation capacity. A draft regulation to adopt public-private partnership (PPP) model for power generation in the country has been prepared to support sustainable financing of these large infrastructure projects. The GoE is also preparing a transparent and competitive procurement framework (auction based bidding process) for private sector investments (independent power producers, IPPs), which would be key in ensuring a viable development of these clean energy sources.
Off-grid electrification
The immense financial and material resources along with the considerable time needed to provide electrification to most Ethiopian households leaves a spacious room for demand in off-grid electrification. A December 2016 report on the Rural Electrification Fund by the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity states that the fund electrified about 45,365 solar home systems, 545 rural health posts and 370 elementary schools and training centers.
The projects under the fund will have social, economic and environmental benefits by improving lighting services, reducing costs, improving health, education and safety for off-grid rural households while reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. The projects seek to replace inefficient, increasingly expensive and dangerous kerosene lighting with other clean alternatives which can help Ethiopia rapidly achieve development and energy access goals.
In a remarkable move to roll down the number of years needed to achieve universal electrification in the country, the Ethiopian government recently launched a program called ‘light for all’ that aims to achieve that within the coming seven years. The implementation roadmap of the Ethiopian Electrification Program that allows rural areas to get access to electricity from solar, geothermal and other sources of energy was also released recently.
All these measures spell a better future for electrification in the country. The successful implementation of these programs would definitely lift up some of the hefty burden life shoulders up the people of Ethiopia.
