Business: Ethiopia exports US$13 million worth electricity to Sudan, Djibouti in two months

Addis Abeba – The Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) announced Monday that Ethiopia has earned more than US$13 million from exporting electricity to neighboring Sudan and Djibouti.

According to Menilik Getahun, the head of sales and customer management office under the marketing and business development department of EEP, the amount generated was out of the planned US$18.55 million by supplying more than 349.56 million kilowatt hours of electricity to Sudan and Djibouti in the two months of the current Ethiopian fiscal year.

The state owned utility has instead supplied 232.76 million kilowatt hours of electricity, cashing in 13.04 million US dollars, which amounts to 70.29% of the target.

However, compared to the plan, the sale was US$5.5 million or 29.71 percent less than the plan, whereas the electricity exported was 116.8 million kilowatt hours, a decline by 33.42% than the plan.

Menelik said that in the two months of the current fiscal year, 112.36 million kilowatt hours of electricity was exported to Sudan for an amount of US$5.61 million, whereas 120.39 million kilowatt hours of electricity was exported to Djibouti worth US$7.42 million. The data shows that 12.29% more was exported to Djibouti than was the initial plan, whereas only 46.36% of the plan was sold to Sudan.

Although the exports to the two countries were generally below the plan, the export revenue generated from Djibouti shows 15.38% increase than was the plan, Menilik explained, adding that the plan with regard to export to Sudan could not be achieved due to a decrease in the demand from the Sudanese electricity company to purchase power during the two months.

In addition to the income obtained from the electricity export to the two neighboring countries, EEP has previously reported that more than 2.74 billion birr was obtained from domestic energy sales and fiber optic rental. AS