Ethiopia’s RISED programme is useful because it treats electricity and digital connectivity as parts of the same infrastructure system. The Renewable, Integrated, Sustainable Energy and Digitalisation initiative combines transmission-grid modernisation, renewable-energy integration, institutional strengthening and expansion of Ethiopian Electric Power’s fibre-optic network.
The European Investment Bank lists an estimated total project cost of about €169 million, with proposed EIB financing of roughly €83 million. The programme is also supported by the European Union and France through Agence Française de Développement under the Global Gateway framework. Ethiopian Electric Power is the implementing utility.
The physical logic is straightforward. High-voltage transmission lines need communications networks for protection, monitoring and control. Optical Ground Wire allows fibre to be integrated into transmission infrastructure, carrying data alongside the electricity system. Once that fibre exists, available capacity can also support broader telecommunications connectivity when commercial and regulatory arrangements permit.
That means one corridor can perform two infrastructure functions. The electricity system gains faster data exchange, remote monitoring and better operational visibility. Telecom operators can gain access to backbone capacity reaching areas where building a separate fibre route might be expensive. The national return on the corridor increases because the same right-of-way supports multiple services.
RISED includes substation automation, fibre expansion and rehabilitation of the Ashegoda wind farm. These components are connected. A modern grid needs to manage more variable renewable generation, and that requires better real-time information. Digital control systems help operators see voltage, flows, faults and equipment status quickly enough to balance a more complex electricity network.
The renewable-energy dimension is important because Ethiopia already has substantial hydropower and is developing a more diversified generation mix. Wind and other renewable sources behave differently from conventional dispatchable plants. Grid automation and stronger transmission allow operators to integrate those resources while maintaining stability. Digitalisation therefore becomes an enabler of the energy transition rather than a separate technology project.
For businesses, reliable electricity and broadband solve two of the most common infrastructure constraints at once. Manufacturing, logistics, finance and technology companies need stable power to operate equipment and dependable connectivity to manage data, customers and suppliers. Improvements in only one layer can leave the other as a bottleneck. A factory with fibre but unreliable power still loses production; a factory with power but weak connectivity cannot participate fully in modern digital supply chains.
The fibre component can also influence geography. Telecommunications infrastructure often concentrates around major cities because customer density makes investment easier to justify. A national transmission network reaches substations and energy assets across a much wider area. Using that footprint for backbone fibre can lower the cost of extending broadband deeper into secondary cities and productive rural zones.
There are governance challenges. Electricity utilities and telecom operators have different commercial models, regulatory regimes and service obligations. Fibre capacity has to be priced and allocated transparently. Critical grid communications must remain secure and protected from interference. Infrastructure sharing therefore requires clear technical separation and contractual rules.
Cybersecurity becomes more important as the grid digitalises. Substation automation and remote control improve efficiency, but they also increase dependence on software and communications. Ethiopia will need security architecture, access controls, monitoring and recovery systems that treat the transmission network as critical national infrastructure.
Skills are another constraint. Modern grids need engineers who understand power systems, data communications and digital control. Training must therefore accompany hardware procurement. A sophisticated substation produces limited value if the utility lacks the operational capability to maintain the systems and use the data they generate.
The project also shows how development finance can fund integrated infrastructure rather than isolated assets. A lender is not financing only a transmission line or a fibre route. It is financing a system intended to reduce losses, improve service quality, integrate renewables and expand data connectivity. That makes the return broader than a single sector metric.
For Ethiopia’s private sector, the opportunity appears downstream. Better grid reliability can unlock industrial investment, while fibre expansion can support cloud services, digital finance, e-commerce and business-process outsourcing. The strongest economic effect will come if those firms convert infrastructure availability into productive capacity and jobs.
There is a further resilience benefit in using optical ground wire. Because the fibre is installed on transmission infrastructure, it can create protected backbone routes that are less exposed to some forms of accidental damage affecting terrestrial cables along roads. That does not remove outage risk, but it adds route diversity. For a country expanding digital services, diverse backbone paths can improve both telecom resilience and the utility’s own ability to maintain communications during network faults.
The decisive point is that infrastructure networks increasingly overlap. Ethiopia does not have to build every digital corridor separately from every energy corridor. RISED shows how the transmission grid can become a platform for both electricity reliability and broadband expansion. The value of the project will be measured not only by kilometres of fibre or upgraded substations, but by the businesses and communities that can operate differently because both power and data become more dependable.
