Sudan Sees Hydropower Boost After Protests Over Electricity Cuts
Sudan plans to boost electricity output by about 15 percent with new hydropower equipment in the coming year as power cuts in the capital spur sporadic protests.
A generating plant connected to Atbara and Steit dams in eastern Sudan will start operating in June, adding 320 megawatts to the national grid as it seeks to meet demand of 2,500 megawatts, Mohamed Abdel-Rehim Gawish, a spokesman at the Water Resources and Electricity Ministry, said in a July 23 interview in the capital, Khartoum. The facility is part of a project begun in May 2010 that was scheduled for completion in about 5 1/2 years.
We want to exploit more hydropower resources to mitigate the high cost and frequent maintenance of the electricity thermal units that burn fuel to generate power, Gawish said. The North African nation normally makes up its shortfall with imports from neighboring Ethiopia, which didn’t have surplus energy to supply over the past two months, he said.
