Ethiopian Tekeze Hydro Electric Power Dam begins trial run

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — The two billion birr Tekeze hydro electric power project is expected to begin generating electricity in the next three weeks.

The dam hailed as a way to ease severe power shortages hammering the economy, is expected to generate 75MW of power from one of its turbines in the next few weeks.

Sources told Capital that Tekezze faced a problem in its power house while preparing for test trial but that has since been resolved, paving the way for the trial to begin.

Tekezze has remained a thorn in the side of the state owned Ethiopia Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) since it started, incurring the power utility company hundreds of millions of birr in delays and additional costs.

The project had to negotiate geological problems. Mountains at the site needed to be leveled causing additional cost particularly in the construction of a restraining wall to avoid severe shearing.

The dam has four turbines each with a capacity of generating 75 MW totaling to 300 MW. When completed, Tekezze is expected to add 300MW of much needed power to the national grid, putting generating capacity to a total of 1,170MW.

The corporation also planned to start power generation from Gilgel Gibe II by mid September, but this remains on hold.

Ethiopia currently faces a shortage of over 140 MW of power, after water at the currently working dams depleted alarmingly.

EEPCo signed the contract to construct Tekezze at the Hilton Hotel on June 7, 2002, with the Chinese National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corporation (CWHEC). Tekezze was meant to start generating power in 2007 but a joint assessment by experts from both EEPCo and the Chinese construction firm forced a delay, pushing the launch first to the end of 2008, and then to the end of 2009.

The Tekezze hydroelectric power project has four major sections: construction of an arch dam, power house, transmission line and sub-station.

Arch dams are concrete or masonry structures that curve upstream into a reservoir, stretching from one wall of a river canyon to the other. Dams with this design need a relatively narrow river canyon with solid rock walls capable of withstanding a significant amount of horizontal thrust.
CWHEC is one of China’s most prestigious electrical engineering companies, having undertaken nearly 80 percent of the large and medium-sized hydropower projects in China. It was ranked 136th among the world’s Top 225 construction outfits in 1999 and 2000.

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