–
**Ethiopia Announces Doubling of Electricity Production from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile River**
**Total Output Rises to 1,550 Megawatts**
Ethiopia announced that it has activated two new turbines at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), allowing the country to double its electricity production thanks to this massive dam built on the Nile River, which has been a source of tension with its neighbors, especially Egypt.
The authority managing the dam announced on its official X account on Tuesday that “the concrete construction of the dam is now complete. The overall progress of the GERD has now moved from the construction phase to the operational phase.”
It added that “the two turbines, each generating 400 megawatts, are now operational, in addition to two turbines, each generating 375 megawatts, bringing the total output to 1,550 megawatts.”
The authority also stated that “the dam’s spillways are releasing 2,800 cubic meters per second of additional water towards downstream countries.”
The first two turbines, out of a total of 13 planned to be installed on the dam, were activated in February and August 2022.
Construction of the GERD began in 2011 at a cost of $4 billion. It is the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa, with a width of 1.8 kilometers and a height of 145 meters.
Ethiopia expects the dam to generate 5,000 megawatts when fully operational, which is double the country’s current electricity production, with a total storage capacity of 74 billion cubic meters.
Sudan and Egypt have protested the project, arguing that it threatens their water supplies from the Nile and have repeatedly called on Ethiopia to halt the filling operations until a trilateral agreement on the dam’s operation is reached.
—
By/radwa sherif ✏️✏️📚