The Genale Dawa III hydropower project located in Southeast Ethiopia, is set to be operational soon. According to Chief Executive Officer 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 meter high and 426 meter long dam has the capacity to hold 2.5 billion cubic meters 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.
Ethiopia energy sector
The energy sector is one of Ethiopia’s priorities as the country envisages to become 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), is completed around 70%, according to latest report of EEP.