Ethiopia to Export Power from Nile Hydropower Project

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--One of the key projects in Ethiopia's drive to make major additions to its power generation capacity is the Grand Millennium Dam (GDM) on the Nile River. The $4.5 billion hydropower project is part of a national strategy to increase power supply for the domestic population and industry, and to export power to other countries in the region.

Disputes over rights and shares to the waters of the Nile have festered for many years between countries in central and north eastern Africa. However, recently talks have taken place have taken place between upstream countries including Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia to redraft a 50-year-old treaty that favors Egypt in terms of water usage. Ethiopia is the source of 85% of the Nile's flow.

Ethiopia's Minister of Industry, Tadesse Haile, said that the hydropower dam would not restrict the river flows to Egypt and Sudan and that these countries would benefit from the effect the dam would have on the regulation of flow. The 5,250-megawatt (MW) project will not consume water and would help prevent flooding in downstream countries by regulating the Nile's flow, he said

The previous tension between Ethiopia and Egypt concerning the river will probably be settled amicably with a new democratic government in Egypt.

Ethiopia is planning to invest $12 billion in power developments through 2035 and have an installed power generating capacity of 20,000 MW by 2021. More hydropower projects, with a total capacity of 5,000 MW, will come online in the next 10 years. The country's total hydropower potential is estimated to be 45,000 MW. Under the Nile Basin Initiative, nine countries on the Nile have carried out a feasibility study that links water and power development.

To support the drive to be a power exporter, the country has plans to construct a 1,300-kilometer, 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission interconnector to Kenya and a 3,0000-kilometer ,500-kV power transmission line to Sudan and Egypt.

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