Ethiopia to commission the Genale Dawa III hydroelectric dam

Ethiopian Deputy Minister of Water and Irrigation, Frehiwot Woldehanna has announced that the Genale Dawa III hydroelectric dam would be commissioned in the second half of 2019.

According to China Gezhouaba Group Company (CGGC, the contractor in charge of the project, the dam will start supplying electricity to the national grid by the second half of 2019.

The 254 MW capacity facility is a concrete-lined rockfill dam built in the Genale Dawa River Basin in the Oromia region of southern Ethiopia. The water reservoir is 110 m high and has a peak length of 456 m.

The container of the dam is capable of holding 3.2 million m3 of water and is equipped with a spillway. Water enters the plant through a 679 m long tunnel, which runs three 84.7 MW turbogenerators, CGGC which oversees the civil and electronics works of the project said.

Note that 60% of the financing was provided through a loan from Exim Bank of China. The remaining 40% was injected directly by the Ethiopian State.

Chinese company, Electric Power Equipment and Technology, will start operating the transmission line from Ethiopia to Kenya in the second half of 2019. The 1,045 km long line will be able to transmit 2,000 MW of electricity.