State owned consulting firm stretches to Tanzania, Nigeria . The Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity (MoWIE) has inked an agreement with the Ethiopian Construction Design & Supervision Works Corporation to conduct a pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for the construction of a 150 Megawatt (MW) Wabi Hydroelectric power project in the Southern Regional State. The contract agreement, which was signed on Thursday, has commissioned the Corporation to conduct a study to establish the feasibility of a new power project designed to have 150 MW hydropower in the Gurage Zone of the Southern Region.

Despite the impressive grid expansion in Ethiopia to date, the percentage of electrified households remains low at only about 33%. The Government’s recently launched National Electrification Program envisions that by 2025, 65% of the population will be connected to the grid as they place a strong emphasis on scaling up connections in areas within short-term reach of the grid.

The other 35% – or around 7.7 million households – will need an interim off-grid solution while waiting for grid expansion, or even a permanent one where appropriate, such as in very remote areas where grid access will remain too costly and logistically challenging even in the long term.

With the launch of the Wind Project Development Roadmap report Ethiopia and Denmark are joining forces for large scale expansion of wind energy in East Africa. Experts from both countries have been sharing experiences with leading international experts to produce this guideline to successful development of wind projects in Ethiopia which support further sustainable growth and development of the energy sector both for the benefit of the country and region.