The government plans to connect electricity from Dili to Atauro Island under the sea and has started a preliminary study looking into this.
The General Director for Electricity Virgilio Guterres said the preliminary study is currently underway.
“We don’t just sit down and do it, we must make a study,” said the General Director in Kaikoli, Dili.
He added through this study they could decide whether there it was possible to connect electricity under the sea between Dili and Atauro or not.
He said the study would be presented to the Council of Ministers for approval and then brought to the National Parliament to debate and approve.
On the other hand, the President of Parliamentary Commission E (for infrastructure, transport and communication), MP Pedro da Costa said Commission E had accompanied the viability study.
MP da Costa explained that electricity could be supplied to the Atauro community through cables under the sea and this wouldn’t have an impact on them, as nations like Norway have used this system to connect electricity.
“So we can also connect our energy to Atauro,” said MP da Costa.
The MP affirmed that the two power plants at Hera and Betano have the capacity of 250 megawatts, but this is yet to be utilized as the country uses about 100 megawatts.
“So we can connect there in order to promote south coast sea projects as well as small industry and private sector projects,” he said.
Meanwhile MP Manuel Castro said this was a good policy but there should be a deeper study.
“I see this is good, and it’s better than using generators there as the maintenance costs increase slowly,” MP Castro said.
