BY TESFANEWS
After a year-long extension and construction programs, the Shanghai Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technological Cooperation (SFECO) commissioned the Hirgigo thermal power plant last week.
The plant was under an extensive 2 * 23MW power plant expansion program since the beginning of last year that is aimed at upgrading its current output capacity from 84 MW to 132 MW.
In a ceremony that was held in Hirgigo on Thursday (12) in the presence of Eritrean authorities and SFECO Foreign Economic Group President, Ding Gang, the two 12K60MC-S, low-Speed Diesel Engines have been successfully tested and handed over to the Eritrean Electric Corporation (EEC).
Eritrea has seen multiple power cuts in the last couple of years mainly due to shortfalls in the supply.
The two 12K60MC-S, low-Speed generators alone have the capacity to produce approximately 73% of Eritrea’s total power needs. They are now fully operational and start dispatching power to the national grid.
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Before the upgrade, the combined output of Hirgigo (84MW) with that of Belaza (17MW) accounts for 90% of all power supply in the country with an 18% transmission loses.
The sporadic power supply and cuts that severely affected the economic development of the country and the living standard of the local people are expected to come to an end as the optimum capacity and efficiency of the power generated from the plant have greatly increased with the coming in line of the two German-made generators.
