AMMAN (JT) - The National Electricity Power Company (NEPCO) on Sunday said it would start supplying the West Bank city of Jericho with its needs of electricity as of today.
This ends the delay in the implementation of the plan, which began mid-2007 following a request by the Palestinian Authority during a meeting between His Majesty King Abdullah and President Mahmoud Abbas.
But the plan was delayed after facing resistance from Jordan Valley landowners who insisted that the route of the power line should not cross their land.
"All preparations have been completed by the contractors to transmit electricity from the Jordanian grid through the Sweimeh Electricity Power Plant in the Jordan Valley to Jericho," NEPCO Director General Ahmad Hiasat said in a statement yesterday.
The two sides agreed on daytime and nighttime tariffs for the power supply from NEPCO to Jerusalem Electricity Power Company, according to Hiasat.
The first phase of the project included the building up of double air grids, 30km in Jordan and eight kilometres in Palestine, that will link the Sweimeh plant to the under- construction Sea-Surface Electricity Plant in Jericho, Hiasat said.
Jordan expanded the capacity of its Sweimeh plant by adding three 33-kilovolt cells, Hiasat said. The cells have been connected directly to the current grids in Jericho, which are owned by the Jerusalem company, before linking them to the sea-surface plant when it is ready by the end of the second phase of the project, Hiasat added.
Work on the second phase began in parallel with the first phase and is expected to be concluded by August 2008, Hiasat said.
Estimating the electricity capacity that will be supplied to Jericho to hit 20 megawatts, Hiasat said the additional power that will reach Jericho will be around 100 gigawatts/hour throughout the year.
Meanwhile, NEPCO will train Palestinian engineers and technicians from the Jerusalem company, Hiasat added. The objective of this training is to enhance the capabilities of manpower in the Palestinian electricity sector and to provide them with the latest technologies in this area.
© Jordan Times 2008
