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The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is inviting bids for the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of two transmission line packages. The first involves construction of a 132kV single circuit line connecting the 460MW Beles hydroelectric power plant to Beles Sugar Factory and supply of ancillary equipment for a 230kV transmission line. The second is to build a 230kV line from Welayita Sodo II to Omo Kuraz Sugar Factory and a 132kV transmission line from Sugar Factory 1 to Sugar Factory 5. Bid documents will be available from 17 June, with bids due by 20 August.

The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) is drafting a new regulation that will enable it to investigate corruption claims involving the private sector, according to a late May report on Ethiopian news site capitalethiopia.com. Ethiopia’s decade-old corruption law does not allow FEACC to look into private sector corruption claims, limiting it to corruption in state-owned organisations. FEACC recently arrested several Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority officials and local businessmen.

Ethiopia’s Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) has made its first charges following several recent arrests of Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) officials and local businessmen. Kumlachew Yeshambel, a team leader at ERCA, was charged with taking 200,000 birr ($10,600) in bribes. The FEACC has asked for more time to investigate a batch of new detainees, including local architect Begziabhere Alebel. An estimated 50-60 people have now been detained on suspicion of corruption since the arrests began in early May. The most senior of those arrested is ERCA director-general Melaku Fenta, who has ministerial rank. The FEACC head has said that the arrests followed two years of surveillance, but some local analysts and specialist newsletters question whether the arrests are serious and whether figures such as Fenta are being used as scapegoats to protect powerful officials of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.

Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) has signed a $1.4bn agreement with China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company (CET), part of the State Grid Corporation of China, to build a 619km double-circuit 500kV AC transmission line to connect the 6,000MW Grand Renaissance dam to the grid. The project is expected to be implemented in stages between 2014 and 2016. The work will also include construction of a 98km double-circuit AC transmission line and two new 500kV substations as well as expanding three 400kV substations.

The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) has announced the 10 May arrest of 13 high-level government officials on charges of corruption. Those arrested include Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority director-general (with ministerial rank) Melaku Fenta, his deputy, Gebrewahid Woldegiorgis, and the authority’s chief prosecutor, Eshetu Semayat. Local media reports say some businessmen have also been arrested as part of the FEACC investigation, including KK Trading’s Ketema Kebede, Intercontinental Addis Hotel owner Simachew Kebede and Netsa Trading owner Nega Egziabher.

Prequalification is under way for the construction of the 1,045km 500kV high-voltage direct current transmission line which will connect the electricity grids of Kenya and Ethiopia. Work is being divided into five lots – lots 1 and 2 in Ethiopia and lots 3, 4 and 5 in Kenya – and work is scheduled to last 30 months from contract signing to operation.

Florida-based SKY Energy International has opened a plant in Addis Ababa producing photovoltaic solar panels, in a venture with the state Metals and Engineering Corporation. The factory, built at a cost of $5m, is the first in Ethiopia, and follows the opening of a similar plant in Naivasha, Kenya, by Dutch company Ubbink Centrotherm Group in August 2011.

Nevada-based wind and solar power developer Terra Global Energy Developers officially launched the 400MW Debre Berhan wind power project on 14 February. The project is located about 75 miles north of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Construction is expected to begin during 2014. Terra Global chief executive Dereje Abebe told African Energy the company was funding the feasibility study and that the financial package for construction was being negotiated with multilateral agencies and commercial sources.

The Ministry of Water and Energy is evaluating a feasibility study for the construction of five small-scale hydro-power plants to be built and managed by local private investors. The Ethiopian embassy monthly newsletter said four cooperatives and a private investor from the Southern region had been selected by the ministry’s Rural Electrification Fund to invest in the projects.

Africa Oil Corporation has converted its joint study agreement for the Rift Valley Block into a production-sharing agreement. The agreement covers the 42,519km2 Rift Basin Area, north of the Tullow Oil-operated South Omo Block, where the Sabisa-1 well spudded on 13 January.

The AfDB’s geothermal programme, initiated in the mid-2000s, is coming to fruition with the interest shown by private sector developers in the 400MW Menengai geothermal complex in Kenya, and the bank now intends to apply its new approach across the region, writes Dan Marks

Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation and Cambridge Industries Energy signed a $120m agreement on 5 January to build a 50MW waste-to-energy plant in Addis Ababa on a turnkey basis.

Alstom has signed a €250m ($333m) contract with the state Metals & Engineering Corporation to supply turbines and generators for the hydropower plant of the Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile. The plant will be operated by Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (Ketraco) have invited prequalification bids for a forthcoming tender to design, supply, install and commission high-voltage direct current converter stations at Wolayita Sodo in Ethiopia and Suswa in Kenya.

Investec has maintained its ‘sell’ recommendation on Tullow Oil following an operational update that saw the stock post the biggest losses on the FTSE 100 index on 11 January. Investec downgraded Tullow to ‘sell’ on 8 January ahead of the 11 January update.