Electricity minister, Saleh Sumai, revealed on Sunday that Yemen will build urgent and strategic power projects in the near future to boost its power generation, the September 26 website reported.
“Yemen plans to have new infrastructure to replace the old one in an effort to meet the local consumption demand and investment and trade development trends,” he was quoted as saying.
The government, he said, has a multiple-phase strategic plan to generate 3000-4000 megawatts through projects which will be implemented in several years with support from Yemen’s donors, friends and sisters.
In the meantime, Yemen will implement urgent power projects with a capacity of 300-400 megawatts to face the current power deficit, he said, pointing out the projects will receive financing from EU countries, the US and Saudi Arabia.
Yemen currently has the lowest power generation rate in the region, around 800 megawatts a day, and persistent attacks on power stations and supply lines add to its suffering.
The minister said the country has only one strategic power project: the Marib gas-fired power station, which generates about 400 megawatts.
Other projects including the Hiswa station in Aden, the Makha station in Taiz and the Ras Kathib in Hodeida are very old and have exceeded their expectation life periods, he said.
The latest developments including the 2011 uprising deepened Yemen’s problems, mainly electricity supply, with almost all provinces experiencing more than 20-hour blackouts a day.
Also, saboteurs have continued to attack power supply lines along the Marib-Sanaa road affecting the performance of the Marib plant and costing the country tens of billions of Yemeni Riyals. Dozens of attacks on power supply lines have been reported this year.
According to the transitional program for stabilization and development 2012-2014, around 40% of the Yemeni people consume electricity.