BrazilPower Africa geothermal initiative in Ethiopia seeks consulting support
The Power Africa initiative is on the lookout for consultants again, this time to help develop a geothermal data management system for the growing geothermal energy sector in Ethiopia. The new system will be leveraged by the two enforcing authorities – Geological Survey of Ethiopia and Ethiopia Electric Power.
The United States Energy Association (USEA) works in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement the US government’s Power Africa initiative, aimed at improving energy generation and distribution systems across the continent.
The initiative is funded under USAID’s Energy Utility Partnership Program, and offers assistance to African countries in the domains of policy, finance and technical capacity. Power Africa was in the news recently, when it called for consulting support with the Olkaria Geothermal Field in Kenya.
Now, Power Africa has called for more proposals, this time for the development of a geothermal data management system in Ethiopia. The move comes amid broader efforts from the Ethiopian government to develop the country’s energy sector.
Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), which is the state-owned entity responsible for distribution of electricity across the country, recently called upon consulting support for the Melka Sedi Thermal Power Project – an assignment that involved the preparation of a feasibility study based on the social, technical and economic costs of developing the plant.
The EEP is one of two organisations to be implementing the new data management system, the other being the Geological Survey of Ethiopia (GSE) – a research entity in the domain of geothermal energy. Alongside developing the new system, the new consulting assignment also involves the training of GSE and EEP personnel in its use.
The database will be “relational” in nature, and the consultants will additionally identify and assign what the USEA terms data base “custodians” in both organisations, and will also offer remote support in the maintenance and development to these custodians following the completion of the project.
