Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (Ketraco) has this week evacuated 50 megawatts (MW) of power from Ethiopia to Tanzania, as the entity races to kickstart a deal that will earn it an estimated Sh800 million a year.
John Mativo, the Ketraco managing director, said that the tests will continue for the next two weeks, during which time the load will be doubled to ascertain whether the company’s network could safely evacuate 100MW to Tanzania.
Tanzania signed a deal with Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP) to import 100MW of hydro power from Ethiopia via Ketraco’s lines. In return, Ketraco will receive at least Sh800 million every year in wheeling charges for the interconnection transmission, significantly boosting its bottom line.
The length of the deal remains undisclosed, but Ketraco could potentially earn upwards of Sh2.4 billion in the first three years that Tanzania will import electricity from Ethiopia.
Tanzania is banking on electricity imports from Ethiopia to shore up power security and ease perennial shortages especially in the north of the country.
“We are doing trial runs to confirm that we can safely and reliably carry 200MW to Kenya and a further 100MW to Tanzania,” Mr Mativo told this publication.
“After the trial period, Tanesco (Tanzania Electric Supply Company) will start paying Ketraco a wheeling tariff for the interconnection transmission service of approximately Sh800 million per year.”
Tanesco is the government-owned entity responsible for distributing electricity in Tanzania.
Mr Mativo says that, once the pilot phase is complete, the Attorney Generals of the three nations will sign the necessary legal instruments to officially begin the trade.
The tests that Ketraco is undertaking are crucial, given that this is the same transmission network currently evacuating up to 200MW of electricity from Ethiopia to Kenya. The entry of Tanzania will push the load up to 300MW.
Tanzania is expected to increase its imports from Ethiopia to 200MW by 2027. This is the year when Kenya will review its deal with Ethiopia, with an eye on increasing the amount of electricity imported from there.
Ketraco will rely on the 500-kilovolt (kV) high-voltage direct current (HVDC) line running from Wolayta/Sodo in Ethiopia to Suswa substation, as well as the 400-kV line stretching from Suswa to Isinya, Namanga and Arusha.
The 1,045-kilometre Ethiopia-Kenya line was commissioned in 2022, paving the way for Kenya Power to start importing electricity, while the 510-km line between Kenya and Tanzania was commissioned in December last year.
This will be the first time that Ketraco’s lines will be used by a neighbouring country to evacuate power from another nation, underscoring the critical role of Kenya’s electricity transmission network in facilitating regional power trade.
The connection between Ethiopia and Tanzania via Kenya is also key in the regional power trade where economies with surplus electricity will sell it to those facing deficit, helping ease outages besides ensuring cheap power.
The Ethiopia-Kenya-Tanzania agreement will become the first wheeling transaction within the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) and will play a vital role in developing the EAPP power market transmission pricing methodology.
EAPP member states are Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Somalia, Libya, DR Congo, Djibouti, Rwanda, Sudan, Egypt and Burundi. The 13 economies are set to start regional electricity trade by next year, tapping into the cheaper hydropower in Ethiopia and Egypt.
