Sudan President Omar Hassan Al Bashir has inaugurated the US$1.9b twin-dam 320-MW Upper Atbara and Setit Dam power project in eastern Sudan.
The project is under the supervision of the Sudan Ministry of Water Resources, Irrigation and Electricity and the inauguration marked the beginning of operation of the unit 1 of four 80-MW turbines.
Also read:GLA Energy to construct 250MW gas powered plant in Mozambique
However, according to the ministry, the remaining units, are scheduled to begin operation within the following timeframe: Unit 2 in April, Unit 3 in June and Unit 4 in August this year.
The facility is located about 20-km upstream from the junction of the Atbara and Setit rivers and about 80-km south of the 10-MW Khashm el-Girba hydropower project.
Published reports estimate US$838m of the project’s cost is for the construction of the dams, which were built by China International Water & Electric Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corp.
The project’s two interconnected dams in Rumela and Burdana have a combined total water storage capacity of about 2.7 billion cubic meters and each location has a powerhouse.
The project also includes a reservoir at the confluence of Upper Atbara and Setit rivers, a canal connecting the two dams, two spillways for surplus water and a 220 kV, 28-km-long high voltage electricity transmission line that connects the power station to the Sudanese national grid. On completion the plant will provide needed energy to the country.
According to the Chinese organization, electricity from 1,250-MW Merowe hydropower facility, Sudan’s largest capacity hydroelectric project, cannot fully-power Khartoum even if it is operating at its maximum capacity. Khartoum is the capital and second-largest city of Sudan, located in Khartoum state.
Of the country’s 39 million inhabitants, only 35% have access to electricity. This means, according to estimates from the United Nations Development Program, more than 25 million people in Sudan are not connected to its national electricity grid.
The contract for building the dams was signed in April 2010, the ground breaking ceremony for the main works took place in November 2010 and construction began in 2011.
