Ethiopia’s Gibe II tunnel set for water test

Ethiopia’s Gibe II tunnel set for water test

By Groum Abate

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) is going to test the 25.8 km tunnel of Gilgel Gibe II this week by letting water run through it.
If it succeeds, then the corporation will try out the turbines in the coming weeks in another trial.

The 420 MW Gibe II hydropower project was launched in June 2004 with an outlay of 5.2 billion birr, with the Italian government providing 220 million euros loan and the European Investment Bank extending 50 million euros. The balance came from the Ethiopian government. The project site is 255 km south-west of Addis Ababa.
After several unforeseen natural hazards, the project completion of Gilgel Gibe II has been delayed for almost two years.

Workers at the Gibe II site use bicycle to travel along the tunnel and check it for defects. Some months ago the project was halted for several days after the drilling machine got stuck in muddy terrain. This came just after striking a hot spring, a development that forced the state-owned power utility to halt the project for several weeks.

Gilgel Gibe II is a continuation of the Gilgel Gibe I project, using the water discharged by the dam currently in use and channeled through the 25.8km tunnel under Fofa Mountain. The power project lies on a tree-covered mountain and gorge in the Sokoru locality found between the Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Regional States.


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