2023-12-05 23:01:10
Head to eastern Ethiopia, in the Benishangul region, where the largest dam in Africa is being built at the source of the Blue Nile. It should allow the country to double its electricity production. The Renaissance Dam is a $5 billion project financed by public money, the size of the immense energy challenge for the second most populous country in Africa where more than half of the population has no access to electricity. The country wants to facilitate the financing of energy infrastructure for the private sector to exploit its numerous resources through wind, geothermal and solar energy.
« We are now on the power station on the right quay of the Grand Renaissance Dam. What you see here is the tunnel that will allow water to pass from the tank into the turbine at the bottom. This tunnel is 8.9 meters in diameter and can pass 300 cubic meters of water per second. With this amount of water we can generate 400 megawatts for each unit. » Ephrem Woldekidan, the deputy project manager on site, shows us the two turbines in operation and the eleven others being installed.
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By 2027, they will have to produce 5,100 megawatts. A colossal project that began 10 years ago, carried out with six different service providers and 6,000 employees. An unprecedented logistical challenge. “ It is a megaproject involving different service providers. So, every day, we sit around a table to discuss, coordinate the activities of the different companies, manage interfaces and access. It is a good experience in terms of coordination and management of difficulties “, he explains.
Valuable skills that the country needs to carry out its energy production, which is struggling to achieve its objectives.
A greater role given to the private sector
« A few years ago, everything was financed by public money. But now the government wants to give a bigger role to the private sector, so it’s a political change. It’s new for the private sector to get involved in infrastructure projects », specifies Mehrteab Leul, business lawyer and manager of Mehrteab & Getu Advocates LLP.
So far, the opening to the private sector has been a failure: projects too ambitious, lack of skills in implementation and risks too great for investors.
But thanks to new rules, companies will be able to negotiate directly with the government, without going through a competitive, laborious and time-consuming call for tenders. Above all, the government has decided to take charge of the risks linked to the Ethiopian currency: “ This was one of the biggest risks and one of the reasons why previous projects failed. Now the Ethiopian government has said it wants to give a guarantee of conversion. So, if a French company comes to develop an energy project in Ethiopia, there is no risk of conversion. Whatever amount is generated on the local market, it will be converted into euros and guaranteed by the State. »
The country is doing everything to improve the legislative framework and create a positive financial environment. It will also have to improve the security environment in a country plagued by numerous conflicts.
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