02 November 2015, Nairobi, Kenya — Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation and the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company have jointly selected a Siemens consortium develop a 1,000 kilometre high voltage direct current, HVDC, transmission line between the two countries.
The $450 million project will be financed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, is scheduled for operation in fourth quarter of 2018.
According to Siemens, the transmission system has a capacity of 2,000MW and will link the two converter stations located in Kenya and Ethiopia with a direct current +/-500-kilovolt overhead line.
Isolux Corsan will construct, install and equip in the converter and AC sub-stations.
When the distance is further than 600km, HVDC technology is used as it is energy efficient and has a much lower transmission loss