The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will begin power generation during the country’s upcoming rainy season, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
The power generation will begin right after the dam’s reservoir retains an additional 13.5 billion cubic meter of water in July this year.
Ethiopia is set to conduct a second filling of the over 6000 megawatt hydropower dam after two months to increase the total volume of water held in the dam to 18.4 billion cubic meters, the ministry explained.
650 km long transmission line has been built and synchronized with the national grid as part of the preoperational works, the ministry said while holding talks with stakeholders.
The ministry further stated that the construction of GERD is 80 percent complete and its second filling will be carried out according to scheduled.
Construction of civil works reportedly surpassed 91 percent while the electromechanical and hydro-structure works reached 54.5 and 55.2 percent respectively.
“No force can disrupt the efforts underway to fill the dam and the process in line with the filling and operation of the project” the ministry vowed.
MG/as/APA