POWER

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The Wadi Hadramawt Electrification Project will provide an impetus to agricultural development in Wadi Hadramout by electrifying all irrigation water pumping in the Wadi through the erection of a 16-MW diesel generating plant and the construction of about 1,000 km of related transmission and distribution networks. The plant will replace the four inadequate existing power facilities and by using less-expensive heavy grade oil will provide significant savings in fuel costs. As the first stage of an electrification scheme, it will also supply power for the first time to many of the major population centers, reaching by 1983 about 80,000 consumers or about 40 percent of the total population in the Wadi, and to small industrial consumers. Institution building objectives will be achieved through technical assistance comprising training abroad of PCEP's personnel, and consultants' services for a tariff study, and a power development study. The project faces no special risks but implementation delays could result because of the remoteness of the project site and its generally low level of development.