Ethiopia begins to export electricity to Kenya

Ethiopia announced that it has started exporting electricity to Kenya under a 25-year agreement between the two countries, nine months after the start of operation of part of the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

"This is a major project that helps transform diplomatic relations" between Addis Ababa and Nairobi, Ethiopian Ambassador to Kenya Basha Debele wrote on Twitter Friday.

Kenya's Energy Regulatory Authority confirmed that it had started importing electricity from Ethiopia on Thursday.

"We will import 300 megawatts over the next three years," said the authority's director-general, Daniel Kipto, in local newspapers.

It turned out that Kenya signed an agreement to buy electricity from Ethiopia for a period of 25 years.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Company confirmed that the power line between the two countries has a capacity of 2,000 megawatts and a cost of $500 million.

The company added that Ethiopia is already selling electricity to Sudan.

On February 20, 2022, Addis Ababa started producing electricity from the Renaissance Dam, which is being built on the Blue Nile.

The dam is located about thirty kilometers from Sudan and is 1.8 kilometers long and 145 meters high.

In August, Ethiopia announced that it had completed a new phase of filling the dam's reservoir, despite the protests of Sudan and Egypt, which are concerned about the decline in their share of the Nile water.

It is estimated that the dam will have a production capacity of 5,000 megawatts after its construction and operation.

The Blue Nile originates in Ethiopia and joins the White Nile in Khartoum to form the Nile, which crosses Sudan and Egypt before emptying into the Mediterranean Sea.

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