Chinese company promises reliable power supply to light rail in Ethiopia
Addis Ababa – China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Co., which has carried out the power supply project to the Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit (AA-LRT) in Ethiopia’s capital, has guaranteed the smooth and reliable power supply to the railway project.
The Chinese company has successfully completed the Gas Insulated Substations (GISs) that are meant to supply power to the AA-LRT.
Officials from the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) and the Chinese company on Tuesday visited one of the GIS substations at Kality area in Addis Ababa.
The other GIS substations include at Ayat, Menelik Square, Egziabher-Ab Church, and in Torhayloch areas.
On the occasion of the visit to the Kality GIS substation, Chen Wei, deputy general manger of China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Co., said that despite of tight schedule and shortage of material supply at local market, his company has managed properly and tried its best to mobilise all the resource within their capacity to ensure that the substation will provide power to the light rail system on time.
AA-LRT was a project implemented within Ethiopia’s first five-year growth and transformation plan (GTP I), which ends this year.
During the visit to the Kality GIS substation, Azeb Asnake, CEO of the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), told Xinhua that the Chinese company completed the power supply substations project on time despite the company has been given tight schedule due to the nature of the project.
The CEO has hailed the performance of the Chinese company on the GIS substations project.
She stated that the Kality GIS substation is one of the power supply projects with those at Ayat, Menelik Square, Egziabher-Ab Church, and in Torhayloch areas.
“These are the main GIS substations. They have also switchgear stations related with these and related overhead transmission lines and underground lines as well. So, all these will contribute to proper power supply for AA-LRT,” said Azeb.
The electrified railway project in the capital of the East African country, with two lines of total length of 32 km, has been carried out by China Railway Group (CREC) with 475 million U.S. dollars, is to be inaugurated on September 20.
Source: Xinhua
