Addis Ababa, August 12, 2022 (Walta) – Ethiopia has successfully completed the third filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) today.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed turned on the ninth unit of the GERD yesterday. That means Ethiopia has harnessed 270 megawatts of power from the second turbine that goes operational yesterday.
The dam’s first turbine which started producing electricity on the 20th of February 2022, unit 10, has been delivering 270 Mega Watt of hydropower making the total power generated from GERD so far well over 540 megawatts.
The largest hydroelectric dam in Africa is so far 83.3 percent complete. The civil work is 95 percent completed while the electromechanical work is 61 percent completed according to Kifle Horo, GERD Project Engineer.
The dam height has reached 600 meters above sea level while holding back more than 22 billion cubic meters of water in the dam reservoir. The total capacity of the dam’s reservoir is 74 billion cubic meters.
When completed in 2024, the dam will power the African economies with over 6000 megawatts of power.