Ethiopia’s Water and Energy Ministry has announced that the Gibe III hydro dam should start generating 187MW of electricity this year, following the rainy season in August.
The dam, when fully operational, will generate 1870MW of electricity from its 10 turbines. The plan is to bring a turbine online every month after the plant starts generation, depending on the amount of rainfall in the basin.
Project Coordinator, Mebratu Teshome, said the dam will store 3 billion m3 of water this season, and the first two units will start generating power successively. The functioning of the remaining eight units depends on the amount of water stored in the dam.
The dam can hold 15 billion m3 of water, of which about 80 million m3 has been collected since January 2015.
The artificial lake dam that will be created will not displace a single person, the coordinator said, adding that it will help prevent the frequent occurrence of floods.
The dam will be full within three years, he said and projects that benefit the localities around the natural lake through tourism and fishing will be built simultaneously.
A UNESCO team will be visiting the locality to assess the impact the dam may have on Lake Turkana.
Experts from 26 countries took part in the project.
Source: Ethiopian Embassy in London
