Ethiopia and Kenya share electricity via the $1 billion electricity highway

Ethiopia and Kenya share electricity via the $1 billion electricity highway

Ethiopia and Kenya are increasingly relying on renewable energies to produce electricity. While Ethiopia all electricity of its national grid from renewable sources, the country is home to Africa's largest hydroelectric power plant, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. In Kenya, however, renewable energies are used around 90% of electricity generation and the country operates one of the largest in the world with the geothermal energy plant in the Olkaria region.

Challenges of renewable energies

But relying on renewable energy comes with challenges: electricity cannot always be generated when it is needed (a drought can affect hydropower, for example), and storing renewable energy is difficult. A possible solution to this is the Ethiopia-Kenya Electricity Highway.

The Ethiopia-Kenya Electricity Highway

This massive infrastructure project was completed last year after ten years of construction and one $1.2 billion heavy investment officially opened. Now electricity can flow automatically across the border when one country needs more electricity and the other has a surplus. This occurs over a 650-mile transmission network to balance supply and demand. Last week, a connection between Kenya and Tanzania began, which will allow electricity to flow across this border.

Power sharing in Africa

Experts emphasize that power sharing between African countries is crucial to a successful transition to clean energy. Darlain Edeme, African energy analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA), explains that power sharing can “improve quality, reliability, safety and have a positive impact on prices.” This is particularly important for a continent where demand for electricity is constantly increasing.

In Ethiopia, which has a population of almost 130 million, per capita electricity consumption has increased quadrupled between 2000 and 2022. This rose in Kenya in the same time by three quarters. At this rate, demand will continue to grow - Ethiopia launched its National Electrification Plan in 2017 to achieve universal electrification by 2025. However, currently only about a quarter of rural households have access to electricity.

Challenges and investments

With the increasing energy access deficit – i.e. the difference between supply and demand – it makes sense to share resources from neighboring countries. But power sharing requires sophisticated infrastructure, especially interconnectors – transmission lines that enable bidirectional power flow across borders or long distances.

The Ethiopia-Kenya Electricity Highway follows the model of other interconnectors in Africa, such as the between Zambia and Namibia, which has been in operation since 2010 and cost $300 million, or an interconnector between two regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been running since 1982 and has cost over $800 million.

Energy supply for East Africa

For the African Development Bank (AfDB), which over 300 million dollars contributed to the Ethiopia-Kenya connection, it makes sense. “The population is growing faster than the new connections,” said Daniel Schroth, director of the department for renewable energies and energy efficiency at the AfDB. “There is a lot of pressure to address this energy access deficit more decisively.”

Reducing power outages

Since the opening of the highway, Ethiopia's electricity supply has assumed an important backup role for Kenya, which imports 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity daily from the neighboring country - equivalent to about 10% of the peak demand of Kenya's national grid. The interconnector has a capacity of up to 2,000 MW.

For many countries in East Africa that suffer from frequent power outages, including Ethiopia and Kenya, access to backup power could be life-saving. Alemayehu Wubeshet Zegeye, manager of regional power systems in the East African region at the AfDB, explained that the new interconnector “will definitely reduce the number of power outages” but cannot eliminate them completely. IEA analyst Edeme pointed out that access to backup power is one thing, but having a functioning utility is quite another. “Companies are not in the best shape financially,” he said.

Connecting the continent

The Ethiopia-Kenya Electricity Highway, which is also financed by the World Bank, is part of a larger project for the East African Energy Network (EAPP), a group of 13 countries coming together to meet increasing demand for electricity and ensure backup supplies.

The EAPP is one of five energy networks in Africa that, using interconnectors, could one day connect the energy supply of every region on the continent. “The vision clearly formulated by the African Union is to create a unified African electricity market that is based on interconnected regional networks,” said Schroth. The hope is that as competition increases, prices for consumers will fall and new revenue streams will emerge for countries that produce excess energy that would otherwise be lost without expensive storage systems. Because of the electricity highway, Ethiopia has already increased its revenue from electricity exports, previously limited to Djibouti, by almost half, Zegeye said.

Environmental benefits worldwide

Interconnectors are also in demand outside Africa, with a network of over 400 in Europe. A connection between Spain and Morocco already links the electricity supplies of Europe and Africa, while another - between Greece and Egypt - is currently under construction and expected to be until 2029 should be completed.

“I think there has been a call for mobilization in the last two years,” explains Schroth, pointing to the increase in interconnector projects across the continent and worldwide. “There will be no energy transition without transmission.”

With more funding and international collaboration, there is hope that Africa will one day become a clean energy hub. “I am optimistic,” said Edeme, “I see a lot of movement in this sector at the moment.”