Operational; power station undergoing commissioning
Construction began
2006
Opening date
October 2015; 8 years ago (October 2015)
Construction cost
US$1.8 billion
Owner(s)
Ethiopian Electric Power
Dam and spillways
Type of dam
Gravity, roller compacted concrete
Impounds
Omo River
Height
250 m (820 ft)
Length
610 m (2,000 ft)
Spillways
1
Spillway type
floodgate
Spillway capacity
18,000 m3/s (640,000 cu ft/s)
Reservoir
Creates
Gilgel Gibe III Reservoir
Total capacity
14.7 km3 (11,900,000 acre⋅ft)
Active capacity
11.75 km3 (9,530,000 acre⋅ft)
Inactive capacity
2.95 km3 (2,390,000 acre⋅ft)
Catchment area
34,150 km2 (13,190 sq mi)
Surface area
210 km2 (81 sq mi)
Normal elevation
893 m (2,930 ft)
Power Station
Commission date
2015-2016
Type
Conventional
Turbines
10 x 187 MW Francis-type
Installed capacity
1,870 MW
Annual generation
6,500 GWh Est.
The Gilgel Gibe III Dam is a 250m high roller-compacted concrete dam with an associated hydroelectric power plant on the Omo River in Ethiopia. It is located about 62 km (39 mi) west of Sodo in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region. Once fully commissioned, it will be the third largest hydroelectric plant in Africa with a power output of about 1,870 Megawatt (MW), thus more than doubling total installed capacity in Ethiopia from its 2007 level of 814 MW.[1][2] The Gibe III dam is part of the Gibe cascade, a series of dams including the existing Gibe I dam (184 MW) and Gibe II power station (420 MW) as well as the planned Gibe IV (1,472 MW) and Gibe V (560 MW) dams. The existing dams are owned and operated by the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power, which is also the client for the Gibe III Dam.
The US$1.8 billion project began in 2006 and electricity generation started in October 2015.[3][4][5] The remaining generators were operational by 2016.[6] The project has experienced serious delays; in May 2012, full commissioning had been scheduled for June 2013.[7] The dam was inaugurated by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on 17 December 2016.[8]
Local and international environmental groups forecast major negative environmental and social impacts of the dam and criticized the project's environmental and social impact assessment as insufficient. Because of this and accusations that the entire approval process for the project was suspect,[9] funding for the full construction cost was not secured, as the African Development Bank delayed a decision about a loan pending a review of the dam's environmental impact by its compliance review and mediation unit. This dates back to August 2009 when they accepted a call from NGOs for such a review.[10] In August 2010 Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi vowed to complete the dam "at any cost", saying the dam's critics "don’t want to see developed Africa; they want us to remain undeveloped and backward to serve their tourists as a museum."[11]
^Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation:Gibe III Hydroelectric Project Official Website Archived 2016-03-16 at the Wayback Machine, accessed on May 7, 2012
^Energy Information Administration:Ethiopia Energy Profile Archived 2010-08-31 at the Wayback Machine, accessed on October 27, 2009
^"Ethiopia: Gilgel Gibe III to Start Operation in September, 2014". allAfrica.com. 22 December 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
^"Ethiopia's Gibe III dam 87% complete". Water Power & Dam Construction. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
^"Ethiopia's massive Gilgel Gibe III Dam starts power generation". This is Africa. 5 November 2015. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
^Maasho, Aaron (1 January 2015). "Ethiopia dam project could start power generation by June - official". Reuters. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
^Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation:Gibe III Hydroelectric Project Official Website Archived 2016-03-16 at the Wayback Machine, accessed in May 2012
^"Ethiopia opens massive Gibe 3 hydroelectric dam on Omo River". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 17 December 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
^BBC News:The dam that divides Ethiopians, March 26, 2009, accessed on October 17, 2009
^Ethiofact.com:AfDB to probe Ethiopian dam project, 4 August 2009, accessed on December 20, 2009
^News Business Ethiopia:Meles Vows to Complete Gibe III Dam at Any Cost, 11 August 2010, accessed on 18 September 2010
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