Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Sileshi Bekele disclosed today that the construction two bottom outlets (BO) of the GERD that provides release of water into the downstream has been completed, tested and become operational.
The 2 BOs have capacity of passing entire annual Abbay flow in a year, provide assurances of flow of water to downstream at no time water interrupted, the Minister Twitted. According to him, other 13 outlets are under construction adding huge capacity of water release.
In the rainy season these BO guarantee flow while filling takes place as inflow exceeding outflow at reservoir. As such GERD is important for power generation for the needs of Ethiopia, the Minister stated.
“It removes flood risk in Sudan like the one occurred last season, saves losses of water in flood plains and GERD is not a concern for harm. It is designed smart as filling an construction go in parallel, constructed as high quality & state of the art modern facility. Rests on meters square area,” Sileshi pointed out.
This Ethiopian fiscal year(2012E.C), Ethiopia generates 15,192.11 Gigawatt-hours of energy as per the press release from generation operation executive office of Ethiopian Electric Power, EEP.
The utility planned 16,165.48 Gigawatt-hours of energy and generated 6.20% less. The decline of the energy production is attributed to
lower electricity supply request
lower night consumption
delay in Aysha wind power plant and Genale Dawa III hydro power plant
Spar part limitation
Related: Walta Ethiopian Electric CEO Interview(Amharic)
The utility stated that there was no supply shortage this season and there was a 9.5% energy production increase from the privous year.
Out of the 21 generation power plants, Tana Beles, Gilgel Gibe I,Gilgel GibeII, Melka wakena, Tis AbayII, Koka, AwashII, Amerti Neshie, and Repi Generates more than planned for this year. The utility planned 17,307.00 Gigawatt-hours of energy the coming fiscal year.
If we take the current number of Ethiopians as 110 million people and the 15,000 Gigawatt-hours per year as it is (without any consideration of export, waste, other energy sources and self consumption), it does mean 136KW per person per year which is a very small figure.
Following the recent stalemates in the negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), after Washington ordered Ethiopia not to pursue the storage and filling of the GERD; Ethiopia has been reacting to the US’s conclusions calling it “biased and one sided.”
In an exclusive interview with The Reporter, Sileshi Bekele (PhD), Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy blamed the US government, the self-turned negotiator represented through the State Department of Treasury, for its unfaithfulness in the last legs of the GERD negotiations.
According to the Minister, despite Ethiopia’s disinterest to request the involvement of a third party in the process, the US via Egypt’s demand, assumed a mediator’s role. Ethiopia stressed the involvement of the US should be limited to a facilitator and an observer’s role, and then agreed to convene in the US brokered talks; which Sileshi recalls as working against the 2015 Declaration of Principles (DoP), Article 10, which Ethiopia had signed together with Sudan and Egypt. Only the three countries have to agree to seek the involvement of a third party when negotiations fail to produce any fruitful outcomes.
Djibouti, Somalia don’t support Arab league resolution. Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew said this week that the US was obviously biased in the dam negotiations it facilitated and observed with Sudan and Egypt, last month, as it was clearly manifested in the statement the Treasury Department issued on February 28, 2020.
In an exclusive interview with The Reporter, Gedu condemned the statement by the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin regarding the negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) saying that it presented a demand even the Egyptians did not dare make. Gedu asserted that the statement by the US Treasury was “unjust and stood in contradiction with Ethiopia’s national interest.”
While recognizing that the involvement of the US and the World Bank (WB) in the negotiations process has helped the negotiators narrow down their differences on certain issues, Gedu argued that the statement, released by secretary Mnuchin, was in no way acceptable to Ethiopia. “Ethiopia protested when the US went against its self-prescribed role of an “observer” in the negotiations to preparing a draft text of the agreement,” he disclosed adding that “we had many issues that we needed to negotiate on and reach an agreement. The negotiation was still not concluded when they said we have to sign their draft document.”
