1001 Smart Cities
🇸🇩 Khartoum

Prepaid Meters on a Grid Run by Phone

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below · 🔎 Last verified · ◆ 11 sourced claims, none individually verified yet

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

✎ Updated 20 Aug 2026 Publication date recorded for 5 sources. What changed →

Sudan bills electricity through prepayment, and the state utility holding company keeps an extensive, geo-referenced database of grid consumers — the data layer behind greater Khartoum's metered households. The war destroyed the layer above it: in April 2023 the RSF took over the national load dispatch centre in Khartoum, and the transmission company has since run the grid manually, coordinating by cell phone, with the network effectively split into a northern and a southern half. Up to 40% of the country's generation capacity had been lost by 2025, and in mid-2025 Khartoum proper's distribution network remained largely destroyed, leaving households paying black-market prices for generator diesel. By mid-2026 the energy ministry reported more than 20 substations rehabilitated and over 1,700 km of transmission lines repaired — yet Khartoum still faced power cuts of up to 18 hours a day, announced through ministry statements rather than a published rationing schedule.

Live
Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence📊 Independentgrades the sourcing — this entry states no impact figure
what does this mean?The strongest source is an independent non-academic evaluation: an audit office, a government or EU review, or an NGO. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run bySudanese Electricity Distribution Company (SEDC) and Sudanese Electricity Transmission Company (SETCO), under the Sudanese Electricity Holding Company
Scale🌍 National

🎓 Lesson

A meter fleet is the part of a grid that cannot be looted into silence: Khartoum's utility lost its control room but kept its customer record, billing whatever hours of supply exist. What it lacks is the humbler instrument some rationing utilities publish — a cut schedule residents can plan around.

⚡ EnergySmart grid & energyDigital government

Sources

↗ World Bank — Updates of Electricity and Petroleum Report in Sudan, September 2024Carries the April 2023 RSF takeover of the national load dispatch centre in Khartoum, SETCO's manual cell-phone grid operation and the north/south grid split. The PDF downloads but its text is CID-encoded and resisted extraction in the sandbox; passages confirmed via the report's indexed text in search results.
↗ Middle East Council on Global Affairs — Rebuilding Sudan's Energy Sector (2025)Published 12 November 2025 · updated 3 June 2026Fetched in full: up to 40% of generation capacity lost by 2025; the prepayment billing structure and the holding company's geo-referenced consumer database; 62% pre-war electricity access.
↗ Sudan Tribune — Sudan blames power cuts on Ethiopian line halt, damage to grid (2026)Ministry rehabilitation figures (20+ substations, 1,700+ km lines, 260 MW restored, ~600 MW expected) and the load-shedding statement; site 403-walls automated fetches — confirmed via search snippets and the Eastleigh Voice syndication of the same statement.
↗ Al Jazeera — Sudan power crisis: studying using candles (16 Apr 2026)Fetched: April 2026 daily-life impact of the cuts in Khartoum ('no longer just a temporary power outage… a daily reality').
↗ Xinhua — Sudan's Khartoum strives to recover amid ongoing civil war (5 Jul 2025)Fetched: Khartoum proper's grid 'largely destroyed' in mid-2025, households on generators with black-market diesel over 30,000 SDG (about $11, Xinhua's conversion) per gallon; Omdurman and Bahri better off.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. 3 of 5 sources carry a publication date, from 5 July 2025 to 16 April 2026.

When the sources were published

  1. Xinhua News Agency · pressXinhua — Sudan's Khartoum strives to recover amid ongoing civil war (5 Jul 2025)
  2. Middle East Council on Global Affairs · researchMiddle East Council on Global Affairs — Rebuilding Sudan's Energy Sector (2025) · updated 3 June 2026
  3. Al Jazeera · pressAl Jazeera — Sudan power crisis: studying using candles (16 Apr 2026)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Entered the record
  2. Sources last read
  3. Publication date recorded for 5 sources

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 11 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 11 addressable claims, 5 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 11

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-6926ea266e8d589b descriptive
bills electricity through prepayment
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The policy brief states the power sector runs a prepayment billing structure.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Middle East Council on Global Affairs — Rebuilding Sudan's Energy Sector (2025)
Claim 2 clm-bd40ed19a1ae51fb descriptive
keeps an extensive, geo-referenced database of grid consumers
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Quote: the Sudanese Electricity Holding Company 'has an extensive database on grid consumers, with geospatial information and sectoral disaggregation'.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Middle East Council on Global Affairs — Rebuilding Sudan's Energy Sector (2025)
Claim 3 clm-682637f16c139675 quantitative
in April 2023 the RSF took over the national load dispatch centre in Khartoum
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The World Bank report records the RSF takeover of the national load dispatch centre in Khartoum in April 2023.
Caveat
The report PDF downloads but resists text extraction; the passage was confirmed via the report's indexed text.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. World Bank — Updates of Electricity and Petroleum Report in Sudan, September 2024
Claim 4 clm-c6a87eb780129f42 descriptive
run the grid manually, coordinating by cell phone
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The report states SETCO has been operating the national grid manually using cell-phone communications.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. World Bank — Updates of Electricity and Petroleum Report in Sudan, September 2024
Claim 5 clm-b8c2c4f80bb8e356 descriptive
split into a northern and a southern half
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The report describes the grid as practically separated into a Northern Grid and a Southern Grid after damage concentrated in Khartoum.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. World Bank — Updates of Electricity and Petroleum Report in Sudan, September 2024
Claim 6 clm-d590db602656a4de quantitative
Up to 40% of the country's generation capacity had been lost by 2025
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Quote: 'As of 2025, up to 40% of Sudan's energy generation capacity had been lost due to the conflict.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Middle East Council on Global Affairs — Rebuilding Sudan's Energy Sector (2025)
Claim 7 clm-e6e2cb262d3f3b68 descriptive
Khartoum proper's distribution network remained largely destroyed
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Xinhua's July 2025 feature: 'The city's power grid is largely destroyed, beyond repair by government or community efforts.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Xinhua — Sudan's Khartoum strives to recover amid ongoing civil war (5 Jul 2025)
Claim 8 clm-e2eb5e9856de2912 descriptive
paying black-market prices for generator diesel
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Xinhua reports households running diesel generators at over 30,000 Sudanese pounds (about $11, Xinhua's conversion) per gallon on the black market.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Xinhua — Sudan's Khartoum strives to recover amid ongoing civil war (5 Jul 2025)
Claim 9 clm-a485969672d8f47c quantitative
more than 20 substations rehabilitated and over 1,700 km of transmission lines repaired
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The energy ministry's 2026 statement, as reported by Sudan Tribune, lists 20+ substations rehabilitated and 1,700+ km of lines repaired, with 260 MW restored.
Caveat
Ministry self-reporting; Sudan Tribune blocks automated access — confirmed via search snippets and the Eastleigh Voice syndication.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Sudan Tribune — Sudan blames power cuts on Ethiopian line halt, damage to grid (2026)
Claim 10 clm-028c17a7991a97aa quantitative
power cuts of up to 18 hours a day
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Sudan Tribune reports 18-hour daily cuts across Khartoum and other states in 2026; Al Jazeera describes the cuts disrupting nearly every aspect of daily life.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Sudan Tribune — Sudan blames power cuts on Ethiopian line halt, damage to grid (2026)
  2. Al Jazeera — Sudan power crisis: studying using candles (16 Apr 2026)
Claim 11 clm-eadb55a8952395c8 descriptive
announced through ministry statements rather than a published rationing schedule
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The ministry says load shedding is 'managed in accordance with technical standards' but names no public timetable; searches found no published schedule for Khartoum.
Caveat
An absence finding: based on what the reporting does not show, not on a source stating no schedule exists.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Sudan Tribune — Sudan blames power cuts on Ethiopian line halt, damage to grid (2026)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-20-source-dates-b4 effective 2026-08-15 · created 2026-08-20

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:112f3e8d3384e6206abcf3ccf4afa0137ab99e62319c863dc618a37987e996ca
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
11
of 11 claims mapped
5
source dossiers
3
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Sudanese Electricity Distribution Company (SEDC) and Sudanese Electricity Transmission Company (SETCO), under the Sudanese Electricity Holding Company
Actor types
utility, national-government
Funding model
utility
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

5 source dossiers

World Bank — Updates of Electricity and Petroleum Report in Sudan, September 2024 documents1.worldbank.org · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-2b84446e6984cc79
Publisher
Name not classified · documents1.worldbank.org
Type / language
pdf · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-15
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Carries the April 2023 RSF takeover of the national load dispatch centre in Khartoum, SETCO's manual cell-phone grid operation and the north/south grid split. The PDF downloads but its text is CID-encoded and resisted extraction in the sandbox; passages confirmed via the report's indexed text in search results.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Middle East Council on Global Affairs — Rebuilding Sudan's Energy Sector (2025) mecouncil.org · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a8d18efc0a958c3f
Publisher
Name not classified · mecouncil.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-11-12
Updated
2026-06-03
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-15
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched in full: up to 40% of generation capacity lost by 2025; the prepayment billing structure and the holding company's geo-referenced consumer database; 62% pre-war electricity access.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Sudan Tribune — Sudan blames power cuts on Ethiopian line halt, damage to grid (2026) sudantribune.com · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-1d681698acb71654
Publisher
Name not classified · sudantribune.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-15
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Ministry rehabilitation figures (20+ substations, 1,700+ km lines, 260 MW restored, ~600 MW expected) and the load-shedding statement; site 403-walls automated fetches — confirmed via search snippets and the Eastleigh Voice syndication of the same statement.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Al Jazeera — Sudan power crisis: studying using candles (16 Apr 2026) aljazeera.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-c89ab8842209c345
Publisher
Name not classified · aljazeera.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-04-16
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-15
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched: April 2026 daily-life impact of the cuts in Khartoum ('no longer just a temporary power outage… a daily reality').

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Xinhua — Sudan's Khartoum strives to recover amid ongoing civil war (5 Jul 2025) english.news.cn · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-dde7f2d08ae80807
Publisher
Name not classified · english.news.cn
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-07-05
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-15
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched: Khartoum proper's grid 'largely destroyed' in mid-2025, households on generators with black-market diesel over 30,000 SDG (about $11, Xinhua's conversion) per gallon; Omdurman and Bahri better off.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇱🇾 GECOL Prepaid Electricity Meters · Tripoli Same instrument, different war: Tripoli's meters log who paid through blackouts; Khartoum's kept billing as its dispatch room fell. 🇲🇱 EDM-SA Published Load-Shedding Schedule for Bamako · Bamako Bamako publishes when the power goes off; Khartoum's 18-hour cuts follow no published timetable — the other half of the rationing axis. 🇸🇩 EBS National Payment Switch · Khartoum The payment rails survived the war better than the power rails: EBS was restored by 2026 while Khartoum still ran on 18-hour cuts.

Explore the wider context

💸 The Price Nobody Publishes🔌 Smart grid & energy guide🏙️ Khartoum city profile⚡ Energy projects📖 Building performance standard (BPS)📖 Civic participation platform📖 Digital identity
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Prepaid Meters on a Grid Run by Phone” — Khartoum, Sudan. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/khartoum-prepaid-grid/ (last verified 2026-08-15). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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