Electricity supply to resume operations in Wau State
July 27, 2019 (WAU) – Electricity and power supply is to resume in residential areas of South Sudan’s Wau State after nine years, the Director for Electricity Power Supply, Ernesto Bol Acho announced.
“The building of a protection fence around the station’s premise has now begun,” he said.
The move, Bol added, is part of the agreement signed last month.
The official said operation of the power station will commence once the company secures a loan from the country’s Finance ministry.
“What has started is directly after the Trinity Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Electricity and Dams. They are now waiting for a loan from the Ministry of Finance, but they have started with building a fence for protection,” said Bol.
The agreement, he stressed, involves building the station, repairing machines that broke down before full operation of the station starts.
“The other step is to increase the supply and bring some additional machines such that power supply covers the whole of Wau town because there are some residential areas in the state which have up to now not been connected with electricity poles,” stressed Bol.
The power station in Wau was established by an Egyptian-based company and is managed by Southern Sudan Electricity Cooperation. It halted its operation in 2011 due to fuel scarcity.
South Sudan has the lowest per capita electricity consumption in Africa, 1 to 3 kWh. This situation is mainly attributed to the underdeveloped energy infrastructure in the young nation, which has been severely impacted by decades of civil wars.
Last year, the Nigeria-based energy firm Sahara Group (SPG) and the South Sudan’s Energy and Dams ministry agreed to develop infrastructures of the power sector in the young nation.
(ST)