Ethiopia’s long-awaited Genale Dawa III hydropower project in the southeast of the country will be operational soon, a senior official has said.
The $451 million power project is now 99 percent complete and will begin power generation in less that two months time, Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) Dr. Abraham Belay said in a briefing on Thursday.
Out of the total cost of the Genale Dawa III hydro power dam built on Dawa River, around $67.8 million was covered by the government of Ethiopia, while the remaining was covered by external loan.
The project with an installed capacity of 254 MW power will be operational before end of this year, Abrham said.
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 4,514 from the current 4,260MW.
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 percent, according to latest report of EEP.
MG/as/APA