Ethiopia is suspending the sale of electricity to neighbouring Sudan and reducing power supply to Djibouti, a senior government official have said.
Lack of sufficient water at the dams resulted in a 460 MW power deficit which in turn forced the governmnt to introduce power rationing until July 7, 2019, the Minister of Water, Irrigation, Dr Engineer Seleshi Bekele said during a briefing on Friday.
“In order to fill the supply gap, the country also suspended power sale to the Sudan while reducing supply to Djibouti by half, he said.
Accordingly, domestic customers have been divided in three categories and each catagory will get electric power service in shifts for the duration of five hours.
Due to supply shortage, power rationing will be introduced until July 7, 2019, he said adding in order to fill the supply gap, the country suspended power sale to Sudan while reducing supply to Djibouti by 50%.
Food processing, pharmaceutical, export oriented companies as well as other social service delivering institutions will, however, be exempted from the power cuts.
Since May 8, 2019, domestic consumers have been facing blackouts for several hours each day, while cement and steel firms as well as businesses all over the country have been operating fewer hours due to the power cuts.
Currently Ethiopia gets 90% its total electricity from more than hydro-power generating plants with a total of installed capacity of almost 3,815 megawatts.
MG/as/APA