The Genale Dawa III hydropower project located in
Southeast Ethiopia, is set to be operational soon. According to CEO of
the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) Dr. Abraham Belay, the US $451m power project
is 99% complete and will begin generation in less than two months’ time.
Out of the total cost of the 254MW power project
built on Dawa River, around US $67.8m was covered by the government of
Ethiopia, while the remaining was covered by external loan. Genale Dawa III
hydropower project Launched in 2010, the 110-metre-high and 426-metre-long dam
has the capacity to hold 2.5 billion cubic metres of water.
The project was suspended for more than a year due
to problems associated with resettling of residents living near the dam. The
project which was undertaken by China Gezhouba Group is expected to increase
the country’s generation capacity to 4,514MW from the current 4,260MW.
The energy sector is one of Ethiopia’s priorities
as the country envisages becoming a light manufacturing hub in Africa together
with a middle-income economy by 2025. Ethiopia plans to increase its current
4,300 MW electricity generation capacity to 17,300 MW by 2025, with power
generation projects in hydro, wind, geothermal and biomass sectors.
Currently Ethiopia gets 90% its total electricity from 14 hydro-power generating plants with a total of installed capacity of almost 4514 megawatts. One of the biggest hydro-power projects EEP has been managing is the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD), which is around 70% complete, according to EEP’s latest report.https://constructionreviewonline.com/2019/11/genale-dawa-iii-hydropower-project-in-ethipoia-99-complete/
