From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Wed Sep 03 2008 - 08:41:43 EDT
Eritrea Accelerates Rural Electrification
Kalekristos Zerisenay, Sep 3, 2008
There is no doubt that humans have become more energy dependent than any
time in history. A primitive life that was virtually energy independent
has developed through time to modernity where life without energy is
impossible. Because necessity encourages innovation, almost every
century has seen particular innovation in the field of energy. The
result is that today there are several sources of energy, and countries
supply their demands according to their innovative capacity, natural
resources and the ability to buy.<\div>
With the growing innovative capacity and modernism, the quest for
electric energy has become a necessity. And indeed the quality and
coverage of electricity service is one of the mechanisms to measure the
level of development of a country. But electric supply is unfairly
distributed across the globe and within countries. In spite of
electrification projects that developing countries executed in the last
25 years, currently only 1.3 billion people of those countries have
electric supply while nearly 2 billion people still remain without
access to modern forms of energy, such as electricity and oil.
Eritrea has a long history of electricity service. During the colonial
period, Italians introduced such a service to Asmara and other towns.
The following Ethiopian regimes had a destructive role in the Eritrean
electricity system and until few years ago Eritrea was vulnerable in the
energy sector. Modest improvements came only after the establishment of
a Power plant at Hirgigo.
While establishing power plant is essential, it is by no means the core
issue. Securing big power plants that can generate enough electric power
is too different from fair delivery of the service to all people. In
this respect, Eritrea is a case that can be pointed out as a state
striving for a fair distribution of the service. Unlike many African
countries where electric cable passes from the power plant to cities
without electrification of the villages on the way, in Eritrea villages
are equally treated as towns and cities. Although it's primarily the
government's role, the Eritrean villages' (especially in the highlands)
organizational structure and the villagers' initiative to cover some of
the expenses is also worth admiring.
When, due to current oil prices, most of the Third World countries and
those of the developed world are reducing their power supply hours,
Eritrea has been striving to expand power supply to all of its regions.
With similar projects funded by the World Bank, a country could misuse
the fund to pay for other imports. But this is not the case in Eritrea;
even in the hardest of circumstances loans and grants are used to carry
out the proposed projects.
Beginning from 2003, Eritrea has been generating power from the
88-MW-capacity Hirgigo Power Plant. The plant has four turbines, each
with a capacity of generating 22 MW.
Currently Eritrea utilizes only half of this.
The first targets of electrification were Massawa, Asmara, Dekemhare,
Mendefera, and Keren. The villages and small towns that fall within this
grid were also electrified. But as this does not correspond with the
government's policy of equal distribution of services, loan has been
secured from the World Bank to expand the supply to villages and towns
scattered across the country. As a result of efforts made, Massawa's old
electric cables have been replaced by new and the installation of
Asmara's underground electric cables is due to start in 2009.
Making electricity affordable is as equally important as making it
accessible for all. Despite being rich in alternative sources of energy,
most developing countries rely more on petroleum products for electric
generation duet to lack of technological advance and lack of funds to
invest on renewable sources of energy. Attempts that have been made to
make electricity prices affordable through subsidies were not found to
be productive.
According to the World Bank studies, subsidies often benefit the
wealthiest households as this group consumes more power than the poor.
This policy has also undermined the financial health of electricity
authorities and companies making difficult for them to extend services
to rural areas. In other words the wealthy are well treated at the
expense of the poor and governments that subsidize as much as 60 percent
of the cost.
As a country generating energy from hydrocarbons, Eritrea has no cheap
electric tariff. For reasons mentioned above, subsidies are not also
welcomed. Yet discriminatory subsidy for newly electrified rural areas
might be encouraging at least at an initial stage. Seeking sustainable
source of energy, however, is at the center of the energy dilemma.
As a tropical country with more than enough sunlight and wind, Eritrea
needs to invest more on the development of these renewable sources of
energy. As a matter of fact, solar powered clinical centers and other
institutions are quite many in number especially in remote areas of the
country. Many farmers use solar systems for irrigation farming and
pumping water. As regards wind energy, a high potential has been
identified in the Southern Red Sea region with a pilot project already
showing promising results.
The start up cost is undoubtedly expensive as compared to hydrocarbon
driven engines. But taking the unpredictability of oil prices and its
green house gas effects into account, industrialized countries and world
financial institutions could help developing countries in alleviating
the energy crisis.
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