APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Ethiopia will start supplying power to its neighbor, Sudan, beginning October 2010, APA learns here on Tuesday.

Various power connection works were undertaken between the two countries since the past few years with the support of the World Bank, which has allocated over $100 million for the power interconnection works.

Accordingly, it has been reported that the Ethiopian Electricity and Power Corporation (EEPCo) will start to supply power to Sudan within a month time.

EEPCo indicated that the power supply to Sudan will start as soon as maintenance work on the Gilgel Gibe II hydro-power production plant, which collapsed early this year, is completed later this month.

However, it is not yet clear the amount of power that will be exported to Sudan and the money Ethiopia will obtain by exporting power to Sudan, which is currently supplying fuel to Ethiopia.

Ethiopia, home to around 80 million people, is currently undertaking a multi-billion dollar investment on hydro-electric projects, and is planning to generate around 10,000 megawatt by 2015.

Currently, Ethiopia is generating around 2,000 megawatt, and this will rise to over 3,000 megawatt by 2011 when on-going projects are finalized.

In 2008/2009, Ethiopia signed an electricity export agreement with Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya.

Ethiopia has already completed the Ethio–Sudan transmission line of 230 kilo volt interconnection project, which is about 321 kilometers long.

Moreover, the Ethio–Djibouti 230 kilo volt interconnection of 280 kilometers is another project that is expected to be commissioned in the near future.