Recently, the Ethiopian Electric Power Company issued a tender invitation to deploy solar microgrids in its 25 villages. In the first three months, each village will have a solar power plant, spare diesel generators, and battery storage, as well as operational and maintenance services.

Since the summer of 2019, Ethiopia has been studying ways to calculate electricity prices for small grids. The microgrid tenders reflect the country's efforts to stimulate the development of microgrids and strengthen electricity supply in rural areas. Dufeira, senior adviser to the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy of Ethiopia, said that investors can apply any tariff plan developed by the government to their own projects.

These rural microgrid projects will be developed in accordance with Ethiopia's electrification project, which was launched in March 2018 and is supported by the World Bank's $375 million loan. The level of poverty in the region is unimaginable. According to the World Bank, the country’s energy supply gap in sub-Saharan Africa is still second, behind Nigeria, third in the world, and 70% of the population still Living in the dark, only 24% of primary schools and 30% of health centers in the country can use electricity.

The country’s first five years of electrification are expected to require $1.5 billion in investment. Through this project, implemented by the Ethiopian Ministry of Energy and the European Economic Union, the World Bank hopes to supply electricity to all Ethiopians by 2025.

The country's energy demand is expected to grow at a rate of about 10% a year, with a population of about 110 million. Ethiopia's current power generation capacity is only about 4.5 GW, most of which is hydropower. In this case, the government plans to achieve more. A large number of large hydropower and renewable energy projects to achieve an almost impossible goal, that is, by 2020, the generating capacity will reach 17.3GW.

At present, Ethiopia is supporting large-scale solar power generation by holding two rounds of solar energy projects in order to obtain 750MW of photovoltaic power generation capacity.Editor / Zhao Jing