Sudan announced on Wednesday its plans to set up two brand new power plants in the national free zone and Port Sudan just off the Red Sea coast.
Undertook by Germany’s Siemens, both plants are said to produce 850 megawatts and are scheduled to be in service before summer 2018.
Sudan has also announced that the first and second divisions of the three-thousand-megawatts power plant, the Upper Atbara and Setit Dam Complex, are effectively feeding the national grid.
The third unit is currently under construction and the project will be completed by the end of 2017.
Observers predict that the country's power production will double this year with the ongoing expansions.
Sudan is also expected to sign an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Moscow next month, allowing Khartoum to take full advantage of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, such as electricity production.
Sudan has completed preliminary surveys to locate the nuclear power plant outside Khartoum.
The increase in power demand in Sudan is 14 percent per year against an annual output of 3,000 MW. The country imports from Ethiopia 250 megawatts to meet the growing demand for electricity in the country.
Sudan is currently implementing a plan for 2031 which is aimed at meeting the African country’s growing demand for power, including the construction of dams, combustion plants with petroleum fuels and renewable energies. It lately peruses employing peaceful nuclear plants to upgrade its energy output.
More so, Sudan has taken many steps towards enabling its peaceful nuclear activity program, especially with regard to nuclear safety and security.
A law has been passed to regulate radiation. Under this law, an independent national control body has been established.
Five years ago, Sudan began to make use of nuclear energy for peaceful aims and agreed earlier this year with Russia's Rosatom, a Russian government nuclear power company, to cooperate in this field.
