Ethiopia, India Wind Power Project Cooperation Fails
According to Ethiopian media reports, India's Enercon suddenly withdrew from the final stage of contract negotiations with the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Company for a 24,000-kilowatt wind power plant project, causing the project to abort.
Ethiopian Electric Power Company began research on wind power projects three years ago with the support of the German Development Agency. It plans to increase the country's wind power generation capacity to 400,000 kilowatts and has selected Gondar and Oromia in Amhara State. Nazret in Tigray and Mosebo and Ashgodai in Tigray are being used as test sites for wind power plants. However, because the two sites in Gondar and Nazret were too close to television and communication signal towers, they were forced to give up due to concerns about interference to their signals. In the end, only Tigray state was left to proceed with the feasibility study.
In August last year, after the German Development Agency completed the feasibility study of the project, Ethiopian Electric Power Company and India's Enercon began negotiations for the construction of the project. According to the memorandum signed by both parties, Enercon is responsible for financing US$3.33 million for the project. But just when the two parties had reached an agreement and entered the contract signing stage, representatives of Enercon suddenly returned to India and stopped responding to any inquiries from Ethiopian Electric Power Company.
Although some people believe that Enercon gave up because it was unable to finance the project, according to sources from the Ethiopian Electric Power Company, Enercon finally gave up because the project supervisory agency, Germany's Rammel Company, refused to accept its Technical change requirements for the project.
Some people believe that the abortion of the project is the fault of Ethiopian Electric Power Company, and believe that Ethiopian Electric Power Company should not include projects without construction funding sources in the plan. If Ethiopian Electric Power Company seeks its own funding sources instead of relying on external financing, the project funds It may already be in place.
According to sources from the Ethiopian Electric Power Company, after India's Enercon suddenly withdrew, a company from the United States and the Netherlands each expressed interest in financing the above-mentioned project. Ethiopian Electric Power Company is ready to negotiate with these two companies.