List of power plants in Ethiopia

The power plants in Ethiopia are shown both on a map and in tables (with key figures).

| Hydropower | Wind power | Geothermal energy | Combined heat and power | Diesel | Tendaho Corbetti Geba I + II Genale Dawa VI Tendaho Fincha Kessem Omo Kuraz I-III Sor FAN Genale Dawa III Ashegoda Aysha Aluto-Langano Reppie Dire Dawa 7Killo Kaliti Aba Samuel Adama I + II Wonji Shoa Fincha Gibe I. Gibe II Gibe III GERD Koka, Awash II + III Melka Wakena Tana Beles Tekeze Tis Abay I + II Koysha

Power plants in Ethiopia (under construction / in operation) with more than 5 MW e installed capacity (as of 2016)

Overview

As a poor developing country, Ethiopia has the right to produce electricity in a climate-neutral way, to trade with it and also to export it widely . Due to the external conditions in Ethiopia (water, wind, sun, geothermal energy) which are comparatively particularly advantageous in many places for energy generation, the country has the right to dispense with imported and fossil fuels such as coal as far as possible and instead focuses almost entirely on those available in the country Renewable energies .

Construction and planning of power plants

Ethiopia is on the big leap forward in terms of the development of the country (with a rapidly growing population). This includes building an infrastructure as quickly as possible and expanding power plant capacity as quickly as possible as a prerequisite for strong economic growth . This requires considerable dynamism with a large number of power plants under construction and in the planning stage to promote the electricity industry . The Ethiopian government expects the demand for energy to grow by 30% annually, which creates a considerable need for new power plants (and for electrification infrastructure) that must be met.

In the five-year period from 2009/10 to 2014/15, the installed capacity from hydropower should be increased fivefold from approx. 2000 MW _e to 10,000 MW _e . In contrast, the official figures for the total installed capacity (including hydropower) in 2015 assumed an actual 2267 MW _e , which in turn is to be expanded to around 17,400 MW _e in the next five-year plan (the so-called GTP II ) by 2019/20 . The reasons were delays in the construction of the power plants and a tight financial framework. Since the start of construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with a planned 6450 MW in 2011, the financial framework has been tightened again significantly. The GERD project, a national prestige project, has to be paid for by the Ethiopian government alone due to international disputes and devours a large part of the state budget, money that is lacking elsewhere. Among other things, this created bottlenecks in the generation of electricity, which could only be eliminated once the Gilgel Gibe III power plant was completed .

Installed capacity and annual production

In 2014, according to an estimate by the CIA , Ethiopia ranked 101st in the world for annual generation with 9.5 TWh and 104th for total installed capacity with 2.4 GW _e . According to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), the installed capacity of only the hydropower plants in Ethiopia in 2015 was 2039.4 MW _e This roughly corresponds to the estimate of the CIA.

The data in the lists on this page result in the following figures for July 2017: 4267.5 MW _e installed capacity (so-called “nameplate” capacity) in Ethiopia. Of this, 97.4% or 4155.3 MW _{e are} renewable energies, proportionally hydropower at 89.5% and wind power at 7.6%, the rest is geothermal.

The annual generation of electrical energy for 2015 results from the figures on this page, whereby the average degree of utilization achieved by the power plants plays a role. In 2015 (without taking into account the Gilgel Gibe III power plant, which officially went into operation in 2016), an annual generation of 10.2 TWh was achieved for 2015, which is slightly above the figures given by the CIA for 2014 in the update. If you include the large-scale power plant Gilgel Gibe III, which went into operation from 2016, the annual generation of electricity would have more than doubled to around 22 TWh within one year.

Explanations of the lists

In the lists on this page, only power plants in operation or under construction with a capacity of 5 MW _e or more are fully specified. This means that there is a lack of smaller oil-based power plants in particular (which supply the large Ethiopian breweries, for example ). The power plants missing from the list of oil-fired power plants together account for around 33 MW _e of installed capacity. Two smaller hydropower plants, which together generate around 1.2 MW _e , are also not mentioned. The list also lacks around 20,000 small solar panels ( SHS ) with a total of around 1 MW _e for households and smaller public institutions in inaccessible rural areas.

The list of power plants on this page only includes active projects in operation, under construction or in pre-construction, but not those in planning or those that are officially under construction , but are dormant for various reasons. This has to be the case, because in Ethiopia even big announced projects (with the laying of the foundation stone etc.) are tacitly discontinued - which are then no longer mentioned anywhere. This even applies to the power plants that are officially under construction. With the multitude of declarations of intent, the projects that are really under construction and with a chance of operation are lost in the "white noise".

Lists of power plants with renewable energies

A partial overview was also issued by the Ethiopian News Agency in March 2017.

List of hydropower plants

The Blue Nile, the most important and largest river in Ethiopia, has around 50% of the country's potentially usable water energy. Nevertheless, there are comparatively few hydropower plants here, as the Blue Nile runs over long stretches in a canyon with a depth of up to 1200 meters, which massively limits the additional use of barrages for irrigating surrounding agricultural areas. In addition, people bordering the Nile, especially Egypt , repeatedly lodge complaints against planned hydropower plants on the Blue Nile, which makes it very difficult to finance the projects through external banks. An extreme case is the Chemoga Yeda project, which was officially under construction in 2011 with secured funding , but then lost funding due to an Egyptian complaint. The last time this project was re-tendered in 2016 with an unknown result. Chemoga Yeda is on the list of under construction therefore not listed power plants currently.

Otherwise, due to the mountainous nature of Ethiopia, there are sufficient opportunities to generate electricity through hydropower. Hydropower can be obtained in particular on the southern and western sides and in the center of the Abyssinian highlands , as this is where most of the seasonal rain falls ( southwest monsoons ), which is why the hydropower plants are concentrated here. Only on the east side of the Somali highlands in the Genale - Dawa basin can certain amounts of electricity be obtained from hydropower through cascading dams and power stations.

power plant	Installed capacity (MW e )	Degree of utilization	flow	status	Height of the dam (m)	in operation since	Specialty
Aba Samuel	6.6	(0.29)	Akaki	in operation		1932	Rehabilitation 1970 to 2016
Sor	5	0.49	Sor	in operation	enema	1990
Coca (Awash I)	43	0.29	Awash	in operation	42	1960
Awash II + III	64	0.59	Awash	in operation	enema	1966 1971
Fincha	134	0.67	Fincha	in operation	20th	1973
Fincha Amerti Neshe (FAN)	97	0.52	Neshe	in operation	38	2011
Gilgel Gibe I.	184	0.51	Omo	in operation	40	2004
Gilgel Gibe II	420	0.52	Omo	in operation	enema	2010
Gilgel Gibe III	1870	0.72	Omo	in operation	243	2016
Koysha	(2160)	(0.34)	Omo	under construction	179
Melka Wakena	153	0.41	Shabelle	in operation	38	1989
Tana Beles	460	0.34	Beles	in operation	enema	2010
Tekeze	300	0.4	Tekeze	in operation	185	2010
Tis Abay I + II	85	0.71	Blue Nile	in operation	enema	1953 2001
GERD	(6450)	(0.28)	Blue Nile	under construction	145		60% completed (8/2017)
Genale Dawa III	(254)	(0.54)	Ganals	under construction	110	2018	95% completed (8/2017)
Genale Dawa VI	(257)	(0.67)	Ganals	Pre-construction	39		public-private partnership
Geba I + II	(391)	(0.52)	Gebba	Pre-construction	46 70		Irrigation 460,000 ha
Total (construction / pre-construction)	(9512)
Totally in operation	3821.6

The utilization rate of the hydropower plants that were fully connected to the grid before 2016 was - using figures from Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP) for 2015 - a total of 0.46, which is the global average for hydropower plants. The large-scale power plant Gilgel Gibe III, which was gradually ramped up in 2015/16, had a degree of use of 0.72 in the first year of operation (possibly one-time), while a degree of use of 0.4 was assumed in the planning stage.

Otherwise, the planned degree of utilization was indicated for the power plants that were in the pre-construction stage and under construction in 2015. The Ethiopian national project GERD, which is currently under construction, is a special case; the planned numbers for this project keep changing. With a (2017) planned installed capacity of 6,450 MW and a planned annual energy production of 15,692 GWh, the planned degree of utilization of GERD is an internationally low 0.28, the lowest value of all power plants in operation and under construction in Ethiopia.

List of wind farms

In Ethiopia, wind power complements hydropower in an almost ideal way. To put it simply, wind energy is sufficiently available when the water reservoirs are empty, while water energy is in abundance when there is no wind. During the dry seasons a steady, strong north-east trade wind blows , while in the main rainy season the wind of the south-west monsoon blows rather weakly, but there is enough rain for the hydroelectric power plants. According to The Wind Power , three operating wind farms are currently (as of October 2016) recorded in Ethiopia.

Wind farm	Installed capacity (MW e )	Degree of utilization	Turbines	place	in operation since	status	Specialty
Adama I	51	0.55	34	Adama	2012	in operation
Adama II	153	(0.34)	102	Adama	2015	in operation
Ashegoda	120.18	0.53	84	Mek'ele	2013	in operation
Aysha I	(120)	(0.34)	80	Aysha		under construction	Aysha II + Aysha III follow
Total (construction / pre-construction)	(120)
Totally in operation	324.18

Aysha I (120 MW), Aysha II (120 MW) and Aysha III (60 MW) are combined in one concession, the actual expansion will therefore take place to an installed capacity of 300 MW. But first Aysha I will be built.

The degree of utilization of the wind turbines using figures from Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP) for 2015 was 0.53 in 2015, a high value internationally. Only degrees of utilization of 0.3-0.4 were planned for wind power plants in Ethiopia.

List of geothermal power plants

Due to the location of Ethiopia on the East African rift valley with its volcanoes , the country has access to near-surface geothermal energy from magma rising in fissures . The country wants to use the access to geothermal energy to build several geothermal power plants . The efficiency of geothermal systems is relatively low (often only 10–15%), so that the thermal output and the electrical output can be very different. In principle, it is possible to use the excess thermal power for purposes other than generating electricity.

The big plus of geothermal energy is the constant availability, around the clock and 365 days a year, so that the power plants can always be operated at high loads.

power plant	Installed capacity (MW e )	Utilization rate	Thermal power (MW th )	place	status	Drilling	in operation since	Specialty
Aluto Langano I.	7.3	0.65	80	Zway / Langano	in operation	4th	1998	Rehabilitation 2002–2009
Aluto Langano II	(70)	(0.8)	(~ 800)	Zway / Langano	under construction	24
Tendaho	(10)	(0.8)	(~ 100)	Dubti	under construction	6th
Corbetti	(500)	(0.8)	(<5000)	Shashamane	Pre-construction	about 150		Purely privately financed 3 levels: 25–50–500 MW e
Total (construction / pre-construction)	(580)
Totally in operation	7.3

The efficiency is significantly lower than the degree of utilization.

List of power plants with combined heat and power

The country has an industrially usable biomass potential for incineration, for example through organic waste. Since there is a simultaneous thermal effect and steam generation (steam for operating turbines), such power plants are very efficient via combined heat and power (CHP). The waste heat can be used both for firing and for generating electricity. Part of the electricity generated is in turn required to operate the system.

Sugar and ethanol production

Bagasse , a fibrous biomass and molasses , a viscous syrup, remain as waste in the production process of sugar from sugar cane in sugar factories . By means of combined heat and power, the bagasse can be burned to generate heat and electricity. Both of these can be used to produce sugar and bioethanol (from molasses). The energy balance is so favorable that the combined heat and power plant does not consume any energy, but produces it, which can be fed into the electrical network as excess electrical energy.

The installed capacity is always greater than the sugar factory's own needs, as the degree of utilization must be taken into account, which is usually 0.8. If the optimum level of utilization is not achieved, a sugar factory u. U. even to the consumer of electricity, since the required self-consumption is a fixed quantity. The table only takes into account sugar factories where a CHP system is planned and is at least under construction.

It is not uncommon in Ethiopia to announce that a factory under construction will be completed in the next month. This then runs for years with the same factories. If they are then actually completed and put into operation, the CHP plant does not have to be ready and in operation on time. With the exception of the first three factories in the following table, whose operation is beyond doubt, it is not possible for the others to determine whether the CHP plants are under construction or in operation.

Sugar factory with combined heat and power	Installed capacity (MW e )	Own consumption (MW e )	Max. Grid power (MW e )	Utilization rate	place	status
Wonji Shoa	30th	9	21st	0.8	Adama	in operation
Metehara	9	9	0	0.8	Metehara	in operation
Finchaa	30th	18th	12	0.8	Fincha	in operation
Kessem	26th	10	16	0.8	Amibara	Trial run
Tendaho	(60)	(22)	(38)	(0.8)	Asaita	partly in operation
Omo Kuraz I.	(45)	(16)	(29)	(0.8)	Kuraz	under construction
Omo Kuraz II	60	20th	40	0.8	Kuraz	Trial run
Omo Kuraz III	(60)	(20)	(40)	(0.8)	Kuraz	under construction
Total (construction / partial operation)			(74)
Totally in operation			87

Incineration

In Addis Ababa, on the site of an old municipal garbage dump, there is a garbage power plant under construction, which is designed to handle 1,450 tons of household garbage daily. This should be put into operation in 2017. The power plant has a boiler with 110 MW _th , which is designed in such a way that it can operate exactly one generator with a nominal capacity of 25 MW _e . Since the power plant has two generators of the same capacity (nominal capacity in total 50 MW), there is redundancy in the event of a generator standstill or a reserve in the event of a high boiler output. The degree of utilization of the overall system with one generator is planned at 0.82. With the second generator, however, year-round operation with a greater overall degree of utilization can in principle be implemented.

power plant	Electrical power (MW e )	Thermal power (MW th )	place	status	in operation since	Specialty
Reppie waste-to-energy	(25)	(110)	Addis Ababa	under construction (95%)		2 redundant generators (nameplate: 2 × 25 MW e = 50 MW e )

List of solar parks

So far there are no solar parks ( photovoltaics ) in Ethiopia . But several are planned. The peculiarity of photovoltaics is generally the low degree of utilization of typically 0.1-0.25, whereby Ethiopia is more at the upper limit. With a planned installed capacity of 300 MW _e , only around 60–75 MW _e would then be actually achievable.

Lists of power plants with non-renewable energies

List of oil power plants

In remote regions without pipelines and for peak loads in metropolitan areas, there are also oil-fired power plants based on diesel .

Only the larger oil power plants are listed. The publicly provided capacity in Ethiopia amounts to a total of 112 MW _e . 79.2 MW _{e of} this are listed in the table. The remaining approximately 33 MW _e of installed capacity are small to smallest power plants with installed capacity below 5 MW _e , including the company's own power plants.

power plant	Installed capacity (MW e )	Utilization rate	Location	status
Dire Dawa	40	0.83	Dire Dawa	in operation
Awash 7 pounds	28	0.8	Awash	in operation
Kaliti	11.2	0.82	Addis Ababa	in operation

The efficiency of all diesel power plants together was 0.82 in 2015, a good value for thermal power plants.

Other power plants

Apart from diesel power plants, there are no power plants from non-renewable energies and no further ones are planned. In 2006 there were efforts to build a 100 MW coal power plant, the Yayu coal power plant . The planning was discontinued because the environmental impact was too great.

Potentials and energy reserves

Water and wind power are particularly prominent in Ethiopia, but also geothermal energy due to the special location in the East African rift. The potential of the usable reserves from hydropower is given as 45 GW, of which approx. 3.8 GW have been realized in Ethiopia and thus 8.4%. The usable reserves from wind power amount to 1350 GW, of which only about 0.3 GW have been realized, i.e. well below one percent. In the case of geothermal energy, between 1 and 5 GW could be economically exploitable, even here less than one percent is realized. In addition, Ethiopia still has small known deposits of natural gas (113 billion m³) and coal, which, however, will not be developed for the time being and which are not needed for energy generation.

Large-scale generation from hydropower , but also from wind power , has particular priority . In addition, there are also larger projects on geothermal energy and solar energy (photovoltaics). The special focus on hydropower results from the fact that the reservoirs built for this purpose can not only be used to generate electricity, but also to irrigate agricultural areas. This is particularly important in a country like Ethiopia, which is repeatedly hit by droughts and famine.

Web links

• Hydroelectric Power Plants in Ethiopia & Kenya. Power Plants Around the World, accessed April 20, 2015 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Power Play. Capital Ethiopia, January 2, 2017, accessed August 12, 2017 .  
2. ^ The Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) [Draft]. (PDF) Africa Intelligence, accessed on October 12, 2016 .  
3. ↑ Electricity like hay. Die Zeit, June 30, 2016, accessed on October 11, 2016 .  
4. ↑ ^{a b} The World Factbook. CIA , accessed October 12, 2016 .  
5. ↑ Facts about Hydro Electric Power. (No longer available online.) Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), archived from the original on April 19, 2015 ; accessed on April 20, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
6. ^ Chinese Solar Home Systems to Light Up Rural Ethiopia. Walta Info, January 6, 2015, accessed on October 12, 2016 .  
7. ↑ From water tower to power tower. (No longer available online.) Ethiopian Press Agency, March 7, 2017, archived from the original August 24, 2017 ; accessed on August 22, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Nation’s Most Expensive Dam Undertaken by Sino-Ethiopia JV. Addis Fortune, September 14, 2014, accessed August 11, 2017 .  
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Long Term Demand - Forecasting and Generation Expansion Planning of the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP). (PDF) (No longer available online.) Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, April 2017, archived from the original on August 15, 2017 ; accessed on August 13, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
10. ^ ^{A b} Ethiopia Along the Development of Renewable Power. Ethiopia Electric Power Corporation, November 2013, accessed August 13, 2017 .  
11. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ethiopia’s Renewable Energy Power Potential and Development Opportunities. (PDF) Ministry of Water and Energy, June 13, 2013, accessed on August 13, 2017 .  
12. ↑ Ethiopia's oldest power plant to restart production in two years. Walta Info, November 29, 2014, accessed on October 11, 2016 .  
13. ^ Awash II and III Hydroelectric Power Plant Ethiopia. Global Energy Observatory, accessed April 20, 2015 .  
14. ↑ Ethiopia: Fincha Hydropower Plant becomes operational. Horn Affairs, December 11, 2011, accessed October 11, 2016 .  
15. ^ Gilgel Gibe I Hydroelectric Power Plant Ethiopia. Global Energy Observatory, accessed April 20, 2015 .  
16. ^ Gilgel Gibe II Hydroelectric Power Plant Ethiopia. Global Energy Observatory, accessed April 20, 2015 .  
17. ↑ Gibe III hydropower plant inaugurated. (No longer available online.) Ethiopian News Agency, December 17, 2016, archived from the original on December 21, 2016 ; accessed on December 20, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
18. ^ Salini Impregilo Wins $ 2.8-Billion Hydropower Contract in Ethiopia. Engineering News-Record, June 17, 2016, accessed November 18, 2016 .  
19. ↑ Melka Wakena Hydroelectric Power Plant Ethiopia. Global Energy Observatory, accessed April 20, 2015 .  
20. ↑ ^{a b c} Ethiopia hydropower investments Q1 2017. (No longer available online.) Fan ABC, March 27, 2017, archived from the original on August 12, 2017 ; accessed on August 11, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
21. ↑ Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam capacity to enjoy 100's of MWs more. Capital Ethiopia, April 7, 2016, accessed August 13, 2017 .  
22. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ethiopia. (No longer available online.) The Wind Power, archived from the original on April 16, 2016 ; accessed on October 5, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
23. ↑ ^{a b} Adama Wind Power. (No longer available online.) EEPCo, archived from the original on April 27, 2015 ; accessed on April 20, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
24. ↑ Ethiopia to build 120-MW wind farm. Walta Info, July 14, 2016, accessed on October 11, 2016 .  
25. ^ Chinese firm to construct 120-MW wind farm in Ethiopia. Walta Info, May 18, 2017, accessed on August 11, 2017 .  
26. ↑ Aluto Langano Power Plant Rehabilitation. Geothermal Development Associates, accessed October 9, 2016 .  
27. ^ EU funding for additional drilling for Tendaho geothermal project in Ethiopia. Think Geoenergy, July 10, 2017, accessed August 22, 2017 .  
28. ↑ Ethiopian power project wins backing from geothermal fund. Pinsent Masons, June 2, 2014, accessed October 10, 2016 .  
29. ↑ Corbetti Geothermal to take off. The Reporter, August 12, 2017, accessed on August 12, 2017 .  
30. ^ House Urges Sugar Corporation to Hasten Construction of Plants. (No longer available online.) Ethiopian News Agency, May 10, 2016, archived from the original on August 23, 2017 ; accessed on August 22, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
31. ↑ ^{a b} Reppi Waste to Energy Project in Steady Progress. (No longer available online.) Ethiopian Electric Power, archived from the original on October 10, 2016 ; accessed on October 9, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
32. ↑ ^{a b c d} Africa’s First Waste-to-Energy Facility. Cambridge Industries, accessed August 21, 2017 .  
33. ^ Ethio-American Firm Celebrates a $ 600m Solar Deal as EEP Officials Get Silent. Addis Fortune, accessed October 26, 2014 .  
34. ↑ Power Play. Nazret / Addis Fortune, September 18, 2006, accessed August 15, 2017 .