The Ministry of Finance has approved a half-a-billion Birr budget for the construction of power substations and transmission lines for 13 industrial parks across the country. The power stations and transmission lines supply 411MW of power for the parks currently.

The Industrial Parks Development Corporation secured the funding to build the stations at Hawassa, Bole Lemmi I and II, Semera, Kilinto, Adama, Meqelle, Dire Dawa, Jimma, Debre Birhan, Bahir Dar, Kombolcha and ICT industrial parks. Of the 411MW, 230MW is permanent, while the remainder is a temporary power supply until the problem in the area is fixed.

Providing permanent electrical power to the industrial parks is the main objective of the Corporation, according to Behailu Kebede, communications head at the Corporation.

"For most of the industrial parks found in Ethiopia," said Behailu, "issues with the electric power supply impede effective production."

Out of the parks that are going to benefit from the project, Bole Lemmi II and Kilinto are industrial parks that are at the pre-operation stage, while Semera Industrial Park is still under construction.

Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) will analyse the productivity and power consumption of the parks and decide on whether to make this additional supply permanent, according to Behailu.

Investments that are operating in the industrial parks and outside of the parks mention shortages and unstable power supply as a challenge for effective operations.

Currently, the country has 4,064MW of power capacity from hydro, 324MW from wind and 25MW from a waste-to-energy plant. However, there is a 21pc power loss in the electrical system, while nearly 60pc of the population is offline.

Fulfilling the need for electrical power in the industrial parks is imperative, and what these parks are currently consuming for their production is not even close to what is needed, according to Behailu.

"The building of substations and power transmission lines will be done in phases," he said.