El Niño drought threatens Ethiopian power supply to crypto miners

Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) has confirmed that it may completely terminate electricity supply agreements with Bitcoin mining operations if the severe drought triggered by the current El Niño weather phenomenon intensifies. The state-owned utility is moving aggressively to safeguard domestic consumption and honor regional bilateral electricity export contracts.

Moges Mekonnen, Communication Director at EEP, told Capital that the utility is actively reassessing its power allocations. “If the intensification of El Niño’s impact continues, Ethiopia may reconsider its power sales relationship with data mining operators,” Moges stated, emphasizing that the government is prepared to “take measures up to outright termination.”

According to EEP Chief Executive Officer Ashebir Balcha, the utility has already drastically scaled back electricity delivered to cryptocurrency mining facilities, cutting supply from 98 percent of contracted capacity down to just 23 percent. The phased reductions followed a nearly 20 percent decline in reservoir water inflows across the country’s major hydroelectric dams.

“When we noticed the dry season was approaching, we initially reduced supply to 75 percent,” Ashebir disclosed during a recent corporate performance briefing. “When rainfall failed to improve reservoir levels, we lowered it to 50 percent, and it has now reached 23 percent.”