This page lists power stations in Ethiopia, both integrated with the national power grid but also isolated ones. Due to the quickly developing demand for electricity in Ethiopia, operational power plants are listed as well as those under construction and also proposed ones likely to be built within a number of years.
Overview
Due to favorable conditions in Ethiopia (water power, wind power, photovoltaics, geothermal energy) for power generation, the country avoids exploiting and importing fossil fuels as much as possible. As Ethiopia is a quickly developing country, the demand for electricity grows by 30% each year. This results in a very dynamic situation with many power plants being planned simultaneously or being under construction.
In the year 2014 Ethiopia had – according to an estimation of the CIA – an annual electricity production of 9.5 TWh and was at position 101 worldwide. The total installed capacity was ~2,4 GWe (position 104). In July 2017, the country had a total installed capacity of ~4.3 GWe and an annual electricity production of 12.5 TWh. In 2017, hydropower has the largest share with 89.5% of the installed capacity and with 93,4% of the annual electricity production.
Guide to the lists The lists provide all power plants within the Ethiopian national power grid (Ethiopian InterConnected System (ICS)). In addition, listed are all ICS power plants under construction, under rehabilitation or in stand-by-mode. And finally it lists all ICS power plants in planning stage which are foreseen (or are given chances) to be going into the construction stage until 2025. All ICS power plants are administered by Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), the state-owned enterprise for electricity production. The lists are up-to-date as of September 2017.
Also, an incomplete selection of operational off-grid power plants (Self-Contained Systems (SCS)) is provided by additional lists. Some of the SCS power stations are private power stations, others are administered by regional or local administrations. The SCS power stations are either small hydropower or Diesel generators usually with an installed capacity <1 MW each. The total power generation is 6.2 MWe for small hydropower SCS, while SCS Diesel generators make up a total of 20.65 MWe. There are also around 40,000 small off-grid solar home systems (including slightly larger solar institutional systems) for remote rural areas of Ethiopia with a total installed capacity of another 4 MWe. All SCS power plants combined have an installed capacity of around 30 MWe.
Provided is most often the nameplate capacity but not the effective capacity of the power plants. Most lists also provide the annual capacity factor for the power plants, which are the actual numbers for the Ethiopian fiscal year 2016/2017 (ended in July 2017). For construction projects or planned power plants, the expected capacity factor is given in brackets. With the installed capacity known and the capacity factor given, one could do the math (not done on this page) and derive the actual (or planned) annual energy production (in GWh).
The lists arrived from a survey of newspapers, World Bank documents and reports, including the EEP itself. The main documents for the power plants in planning stage on this page came from the Ethiopian Power System Expansion Master Plan Study, EEP 2014 and from the Ethiopian Geothermal Power System Master Plan, JICA 2015.
Lists of ICS power plants A complete list for all Ethiopian ICS power plants was published by the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) in September 2017.
Renewable energies Hydropower ICS power plantCoordinates River Drainagebasin Installedcapacity (MWe) Capacity factor(2016/17) Total reservoirsize [km3] Dam height [m]run-of-river Irrigationarea [km2] Operationalsince StatusNotes Aba Samuel AkakiAfar Triangle 6.6 0.25 0.035 22 no 1932 Rehabilitation1970 to 2016 Koka (Awash I) Awash Afar Triangle 43 0.23 1.9 47 no 1960 Awash II+III Awash Afar Triangle 64 0.21 river run-of-river no 19661971 Fincha Fincha Abbay 134 0.63 0.65 20 no 1973 Fincha Amerti Neshe (FAN) Amerti / Neshe Abbay 95 0.13 0.19 38 127 2011 Gilgel Gibe I Gilgel GibeTurkana Basin 184 0.43 0.92 40 no 2004 cascade with Gilgel Gibe II Gilgel Gibe II Gilgel Gibe / Omo Turkana Basin 420 0.41 diversionweir 46.5 no 2010 cascade with Gilgel Gibe I Gilgel Gibe III Omo Turkana Basin 1,870 0.30 14.7 246 no 2016 cascade with Koysha Koysha Dam Omo Turkana Basin (2,160) (0.34) 6 179 no under construction cascade with Gilgel Gibe III Melka Wakena ShebelleShebelle 153 0.30 0.75 42 no 1989 Tana Beles Beles Nile 460 0.61 9.1 floodgates 1,400 2010 Tekeze Tekeze Nile 300 0.26 9.3 188 no 2010 Tis Abay I+II Blue Nile Nile 84.40.015 river run-of-river no 19532001 GERD Hidase Abbay Abbay 5,150 0.28 74 155 no 2025 operational de factocascade with Roseires Dam Genale Dawa III GanaleJubba 254 0 2.6 110 no 2017 operational cascade with Genale Dawa VI Genale Dawa VI Ganale Jubba (257) (0.67) 0.18 39 270 projectimplementation cascade with Genale Dawa IIIPublic-Private Partnership Geba I+II Gebba Abbay (385) (0.52) 1.4 4670 4,800 projectimplementation Total 12,020 Total operational 9,218 The average capacity factor of all the shown Ethiopian hydropower plants was at 0.46 in the year 2014/15, an average value from the worldwide perspective. In 2016/17, the average capacity factor was well below the 2014/2015 value. The reason is simple: the power grid got plenty of power generation reserves with the large Gilgel Gibe III power plant going into operation in 2016.
Run-of-river schemes (without reservoir) totally depend on the flow of the river, which might be low in times of drought. Sometimes a run-of-river hydropower plant sits behind another hydropower plant in a cascade, so that their operation does not depend on the river but on the upstream size of the reservoir feeding the upstream hydropower plant. Such a scheme exists in the several cases (see Remarks). This makes more efficient use of the existing water supply.
Given by the table is the total volume of the reservoir for several hydropower plants but not the live volume, the usable part of the volume for hydropower generation. The live volume is not always known, therefore it is not shown in the lists, but a few examples can be given. The Tekezé-reservoir has a live volume of 5.3 km3, that is less than 58% of the total volume of 9.3 km3. For Genale Dawa III on the other hand, a live volume of 2.3 km3 is present, that is almost 90% of the total volume of the reservoir. For the larger reservoir of the Gilgel Gibe III power plant, the live volume amounts to 11.75 km3, 80% of the total size of the reservoir. The Koysha reservoir, although equipped with more turbine generators than Gilgel Gibe III is considered to get a live volume of only 5.2 km3. Koysha will depend on the cascade with Gibe III and is considered to be operated partially in run-of-river mode. And finally, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the live volume is about 59.2 km3, also 80% of the total size of the reservoir.
Wind farms According to The Wind Power, the number of wind parks in operation (as of July 2017) was three. All these wind parks deliver power to the national grid; they are ICS power stations.
Wind farm Location Coordinates Installedcapacity (MWe) Capacity factor(2016/17) Turbines Operationalsince Notes Adama IAdama 51 0.30 34 2012 Adama II Adama 153 0.32 102 2015 AshegodaHintalo Wajirat 120 0.21 84 2013 Ayisha IAyisha (120) (0.34) 80 underconstruction Ayisha IIAyisha (120) (0.41) 48 underconstruction; Ayisha III will follow Total 564 Total operational 324 Ayisha I (120 MWe), Ayisha II (120 MWe) and Ayisha III (60 MWe) are bundled in one concession. This means, that all three will be under construction more or less simultaneously. The total installed capacity will be 300 MWe.
Geothermics All geothermal power plants are designed to be ICS power plants. They are primarily considered to be baseload power plants.
ICS power plant Location Coordinates Installedcapacity (MWe) Capacity factor(2016/17) Thermalenergy (MWth) Wells Operationalsince Status Notes Aluto IAluto Langano 7.3 0 80 4 1998 mothballed out-of-operation for most of the time Aluto II Aluto Langano (75) (0.8) 8 committed, inimplementation Tendaho IDubti (10) (0.8) 6 underconstruction Corbetti IShashamane (10) (0.8) 3–5 under constructionuntil 2020 One concession of Corbetti I-III with Tulu Moye I-IV (total ~1020 MW) Corbetti II Shashamane (50) (0.8) 9–13 committed, in implementation One concession of Corbetti I-III with Tulu Moye I-IV (total ~1020 MW) Tulu Moye IArsi Zone (50) (0.90) under constructionuntil 2021 One concession of Corbetti I-III with Tulu Moye I-IV (total ~1020 MW) Total 202.3 Total operational 0 The energy conversion efficiency of geothermal energies is low, at 10-15%, so that the released thermal energy is much larger than the obtained electrical energy. But thermal energy does not cost anything, so a low energy conversion efficiency does not hurt.
A total of ~520 MW is planned at the Corbetti site, with 10 MW under construction in the years 2018-2019 (Corbetti I) financed by equity. Almost simultaneously, Corbetti II with 50-60 MW will be developed, based on debt financing. After these two first phases, a simple GO decision by the stakeholders is required to start the construction works of Corbetti III to add another 440-60 MW until 2025. In parallel to the construction works at the Corbetti site, it is foreseen to start working at the Tulu Moye geothermal sites with ~520 MW in four phases, Tulu Moye I with 50 MW until 2021 and after a GO decision, Tulu Moye II-IV with 470 MW (see planned geothermal projects below) until 2027.
The total concession package agreed on between the Ethiopian government and the project stakeholders allows for the development of 1020 MW of geothermal energy at the respective sites.
Solar parks Energy generation from solar energy in Ethiopia is limited to photovoltaic systems, only solar parks operating with flat panel solar cells will be built and operated. Ethiopia is specifying its solar parks with the ac-converted nominal power output MWac instead of the standard dc-based MWp. Ethiopia so avoids some confusion about the nominal power output.
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! ICS solar park ! Location ! class="unsortable"|Coordinates ! Installedcapacity(MWac) ! Capacityfactor ! Park size[km2] ! Operationalsince ! Status ! class="unsortable" |Notes |- | Metehara |Metehara | |style="text-align:center" data-sort-value="100" | (100) |style="text-align:center" data-sort-value="0.32"| (0.32) |style="text-align:center" data-sort-value="2.5"| (2.5) |style="text-align:center"| | projectimplementation | data-sort-value="0" | 1st solar park |} No solar-thermal power plants are planned. The first large solar park is considered to be operational by 2019. All solar parks will be operated by private owners equipped with a long-term power purchase agreement.
Thermal Renewable sources for thermal power plants include agricultural wastes, wood, urban wastes. In short: biomass. Two types of these thermal power plants exist in Ethiopia: Simple biomass thermal power plants, all electricity generated is exported to the power grid. Biomass thermal power plants that are cogeneration, meaning that they are captive power plants attached to a factory, typically a sugar factory, and the electricity produced is consumed mainly by that factory, with only surplus power being supplied to the national grid.
Simple thermal