Control Center of the High-Voltage Electrical Network of Ethiopia

Since electricity cannot be stored in large quantities, production must be constantly adjusted to demand to prevent the risk of power outages. This real-time distribution of electricity according to needs is ensured by a control center of the national electrical network.

Given the very strong growth in electricity production, consumption and export in Ethiopia in recent years, the current national control center designed 13 years ago is no longer adequate. The new generation facilities are not fully integrated and the system lacks automation in comparison to the large area covered and the large volumes of electricity to be managed. The construction of an improved and largely automated management center of the electrical network will allow to maintain and improve the balance between production and consumption.

Current electricity generation is nearly sufficient to meet demand; however, the country's transmission and distribution systems are the bottleneck in the electricity sector. This project is part of the National Grid Infrastructure Development Project of the national operator Ethiopian Electric Power, which aims at upgrading the entire power system (substations, transmission lines, etc.) to provide a stable supply of electricity to the population and industries.

This project includes the construction of a new control center for the electrical transmission network and a backup center to take over from the main center in case of failure of the latter. The center will be equipped with the most modern technologies to manage the country's high-voltage network in an optimized and quasi-automatic way, thus improving the stability, security and quality of the electrical system.

This project aims to strengthen EEP's capacity to control the national grid and to set up an efficient control center to: reduce technical losses, reduce outages, better integrate intermittent renewable energies, reduce maintenance costs, better control regional interconnections... The project is part of the national strategy Home Grown Economic Reforms, including a component to improve the performance of the electricity operators.