May 27, 2022/ Socotra Online
Reporting and Photography: Editorial Team
The electricity sector in the Socotra Archipelago has witnessed a tangible qualitative leap recently, which was represented in the implementation of a number of development and expansion projects with the support of the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation.
The Foundation’s team worked to establish a number of electrical stations on the island and operate them 24 hours a day, namely Muri Station, Alama Station, Qalansiyah Station, and the new Hadiboh Station.
The Foundation worked on changing the overhead network in the cities of Hadiboh and Qalansiyah to a ground network, delivering electricity to areas that had not previously been connected to electricity, creating an overhead network to transmit electric power to agricultural areas in Hadiboh and neighboring villages, distributing generators to remote villages, and creating a distribution network for more than 30 sites, in addition to establishing an electricity network for a number of 161 dwellings in Steroh, Sheikh Zayed City 1, through a plant powered by electric generators, to become in the future a solar power plant with a capacity of 300 kt.
The Khalifa Foundation has established two solar power stations in Socotra, the first of its kind, with a capacity of 2.5 megawatts in Hadiboh city and 500 kilowatts in Qalansiyah, in addition to working on the installation of solar-powered street lighting and the implementation of the archipelago lighting project targeting the main and public lines on the island.
The Foundation was keen to extend all lines from the stations with ground cables to ensure a better flow of current to all cities, villages and beneficiary areas.
The efforts of the Khalifa Foundation in the electricity sector have received official and popular guidance at the governorate level for its effective role in ending the suffering of this sector and delivering electricity to neighboring areas for the first time, which changed their reality and contributed to the societal stability of its people.