The Power lines linking East African countries will be interconnected in the next two to three years after completion of various high voltage lines, paving way for conducting regional power trade.
The interconnection of the national grids would provide a bigger energy platform for countries to trade power and tap in idle supplies from one another. Principal Secretary of Energy in Kenya Mr. Joseph Njoroge notes that that the high voltage lines linking Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania are expected to be ready in the next three years at most.
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Solving East Africa’s power shortage
Power outages and shortages are common across the regions and businesses have always complained that the shortage and outages have discouraged investors and also pushed up prices of products due to the high cost of production, in particular, the costly diesel oil.
“In the next two to three years we will be able to come up with a configuration that enhanced demand in terms of the region,” said PS Njoroge. Uganda – Tanzania line will be 400KV while the Kenya – Ethiopia line will be 500KV. The Uganda line will extend to link Rwanda and Burundi.
The countries which are all part of the East African Community trade bloc except Ethiopia are also expected to trade electricity with Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zibwabwe through the Tanzania power line.
Initially, the Ministry of Energy in Kenya had said the line connecting Ethiopia and Kenya was expected to be completed in 2017, while that between Kenya and Uganda was to be ready in 2016, and the Kenya-Tanzania one was scheduled to be finished last year. However, there has been delays due to difficulties in land acquisition on some sections for putting up the lines.
