List of power stations in Ethiopia

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.[6][7][8][9] 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.[3]

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.

According to The Wind Power, the number of wind parks in operation (July 2017) is at three.[25] All these wind parks deliver power to the national grid, they are ICS power stations.

Ayisha I (120 MW_e), Ayisha II (120 MW_e) and Ayisha III (60 MW_e) 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 MW_e.

All geothermal power plants are designed to be ICS power plants. They are primarily considered to be baseload power plants.

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.[35] 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.[37]

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.[32]

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 MW_ac instead of the standard dc-based MW_p. Ethiopia so avoids some confusion about the nominal power output.

No solar-thermal power plants are planned. The first large solar park is considered to be operational by 2019.[39][38] All solar parks will be operated by private owners equipped with a long-term power purchase agreement.

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:

1. Simple biomass thermal power plants, all electricity generated is exported to the power grid.
2. 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.

There is only one biomass-based thermal power plant in Ethiopia which is not attached to some large factory (therefore it is "simple" and not "cogenerational"). Located at the site of the main landfill (Koshe) of the capital Addis Ababa is the first waste-to-energy power plant of Ethiopia, Reppie waste-to-energy plant. It will be an ICS power plant.[40] The power plant operates with a 110  MW_th boiler that is designed to deliver sufficient steam to one single 25 MW_e generating unit. Therefore and irrespective the existence of a second 25 MW_e turbine-generator, the power plant cannot generate more than 25 MW_e without special measures (like a future plant expansion).[41]

Cogeneration means that the electricity is generated by a captive power plant attached to a factory, typically a sugar factory in Ethiopia, and the electricity produced is consumed mainly by that factory, with only surplus power being supplied to the national grid. The largest of these power plants, however, is under construction and is considered to deliver both heat and electricity for the own use in an industrial park near Adi Gudem with up to 11 heavy industry factories. It is fully private (IPP), the electrical power will be delivered to the national grid through a power purchasing agreement (PPA).[42]

The production of sugar and bioethanol from sugarcane leaves over biomass wastes: bagasse. The production of sugar and bioethanol requires thermal and electrical energy, both which is provided through the combustion of bagasse. The excess electrical power that is not needed for the production processes is then delivered to the national power grid. The Ethiopian sugar factories are state-owned and they are sometimes 'under construction' for many years and don't necessarily deliver sugar – or electricity. One example, the construction of Tendaho Sugar, started in 2005 and 12 years later its degree of completion stands at 27%.[45] In addition, the sugarcane production remains low and so does the sugar and electricity production. At least the first three plants on the list (Wonji-Shoa Sugar, Metehara Sugar, Finchaa Sugar) are out of question, they are delivering sugar and electricity.[46]

Bagasse is only available from October to May during and after the harvesting of sugarcane. Therefore the operation of the plants (and their cogeneration facilities) is limited to these months. Given such conditions, the capacity factor of the plants has low chances to be above 0.5.

Under investigation is the use of biomass other than bagasse for electricity production in the campaign gap from May to October. A promising candidate is also the use of Devil's Tree for the Kessem sugar factory, an invasive species in the Amibara woreda of Afar region of Ethiopia. In addition, other thermal biomass power plants are planned to be constructed in Amibara woreda (close to the Kessem sugar factory) to make use of the Devil's Tree.

The list contains ICS power plants, with a sum of 98.8 MW_e of installed capacity. They are all powered by diesel fuel:

Diesel power generation costs up to 10 times more than hydropower and is only used in times of emergency or when no other option is available. In 2016/2017, the capacity factor was ~0.00, indicating that the power grid had enough reserves and did not require power generation from expensive diesel. Essentially, all diesel power plants were in stand-by mode only.

There are no other power plants working with non-renewable fuels or fossil fuels.

Ethiopia has confirmed gaseous, liquid and solid hydrocarbon reserves (fossil fuels): natural gas of around eight trillion cubic feet, oil by 253 million tonnes of oil shales and more than 300 million tonnes of coal.[9] Most countries on earth use such resources to generate electricity, but in Ethiopia, there are no plans to exploit them for energy generation. An 800 km pipeline from a gas field to Djibouti is being laid by a Chinese company in order to export Ethiopia's gas resources cheaply to China, but there are no plans to use these resource for the benefit of Ethiopia itself yet. In the case of coal, plans were made in 2006 to build a 100 MW coal power plant (the Yayu coal power plant) which would use coal and lignite from a nearby coal mine. The capacity of 100 MW is extremely small by international standards (2000–4000 MW being the norm), but still, an active environment lobby managed to sabotage the plans, with the backing of international NGOs. All plans had to be abandoned and the project was cancelled in September 2006. The expected environmental destruction was considered to be way too severe.[47]

The list is certainly not complete.

The listed SCS power plants have a total capacity of 6.3 ME_e. An extension of the "Sor" power plant, the "Sor 2" power plant with another 5 ME_e might be under construction, but the status of that project is not known.

first six wind turbines / generators (with battery buffer) were initiated, built and provided in 2016 by the Ethio Resource Group, a privately owned company, that made a power purchasing agreement with the Ethiopian government. Each turbine services another village and its own micro-grid, there are no connections between the micro-grids and between the turbines.[48][49]

There are around 40,000 small off-grid Solar Home Stations mainly for households delivering between 25–100 W each. For 2020 it is planned to have 400,000 of them.[39][4] In addition, a large amount of solar lanterns are in operation, up to 3,600,000 are planned for 2020 for providing lighting in places in need for it. A double-digit number of private initiatives in Ethiopia is funded with US$100,000 each through the Power Africa and The Off-Grid Energy Challenge of the U.S. African Development Foundation. The single largest one is a 12 kW solar installation.[50]

Remarkable is a hybrid photovoltaics system buffered by a battery which allows to deliver 160 kW. This system is built for Wolisso Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Ethiopia to have an always reliable source of electrical power at a rated voltage due to its high-level medicine infrastructure and sensitive instruments and other equipment.[51]

There are many small operational and active off-grid SCS Diesel systems with a sum of 20.65 MW of installed capacity throughout Ethiopia (Aug. 2017).

Ethiopia is now aiming as much as possible at geothermal energy, in contrast to the years before 2015, when the country focused almost exclusively on hydropower. Power plants with geothermal energy usually have a high and constant power output with high capacity factors which makes this kind of energy highly competitive in the long term. Also, geothermal energy can be used for baseload power plants. Geothermal energy is unlimited and always available, which is not always the case for hydropower (in times of drought, for example). Hydropower is still much cheaper and has the largest share in Ethiopian plans.

Ethiopia with its quickly increasing electricity demand of over 30% requires new power plants, immediately.[1] But at the same time, the construction of new power plants is incredibly slow, in 2015 only 3.9% of the energy target (energy from new power plants) had been achieved for the timeframe from 2010–2015 due to lack of public financing.[52] Ethiopia learned its lesson and is now seeking financing from private investors. These investors should build and also operate power plants for 25 years as Independent Power Producers (IPP), each equipped with a Power Purchasing Agreement (PPA).[53]

Therefore, Ethiopia is now experimenting with Public-private partnerships with IPP's for the construction of most if not all powervplants. This happens in the hope to have many power plants being constructed simultaneously, something, Ethiopia cannot do due to its own limited financial resources. This also means that the original Ethiopian plans dealing with a priority order of power plants to be constructed until 2025 or 2037 is dead, as the free market has its own priority order.

Regarding suitable sites for generating electricity, Ethiopia did a lot of exploration in recent years, including determining the expected levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for each site, electricity source and power plant including the construction of necessary power transmission lines, auxiliary infrastructures like access roads, etc. The LCOE values also depend on a multitude of boarder conditions like the capacity factor, the assumed lifetime of a power plant and other boarder conditions often being country-specific (which are not provided here). In some cases, the costs for power transmission lines make up to 0.02 $/kWh of the provided LCOE. Power transmission losses account for up to 0.007 $/kWh. The LCOE given in all tables below therefore cannot be directly compared to that of other countries in Africa and of the World in general.

The LCOE and LCOE ranges provided below are given in US$ values as of 2012 and were determined in 2013–2015. They reflect the state-of-the-art of 2012 and do not account for technology breakthroughs in the meantime:

The list above does show the expected installed capacity (in MW_e) for the LCOE ranges given for the year 2025. In general, Ethiopia targets LCOE of around 0.08 $/kWh and below to stay competitive in the future. A few exceptions are about to happen in particular in eastern Ethiopia (no hydropower, no geothermal energy, substantial losses through long distance power transmission), where CCGT and wind power remains competitive. This explains in part the planned energy mix shown.

As IPP's should take over starting with 2017, surprises can happen. For example, high LCOE sites for geothermal power generation might become low LCOE sites in the near future, as there is an innovation cycle resulting in reduced costs. This is not reflected by the table above. Accordingly, the installed capacity in 2025 might be higher for geothermal energy than expected. A similar trend is observable for wind power and photovoltaics, so there might be a number of wind power sites in 2025 with an LCOE below 0.09 $/kWh. In the USA and in the timeframe of 2010–2017, the LCOE for solar photovoltaics was reduced by 81%, wind power saw a reduction of 63% and CCGT a reduction of 31%.

The following distribution among public and private investors is planned, with IPP constructing and operating the power plants for 20–25 years through PPA:

The table below shows candidate power plants for construction, ordered for their LCOE (based on 2012 values). The general terms outlined in the chapter above for LCOE values apply for this listing as well. Power plants under construction or in project implementation phase are not shown, only the planned ones.

Most entries came from the Ethiopian Power System Expansion Master Plan Study, EEP 2014 and from the Ethiopian Geothermal Power System Master Plan, JICA 2015.[5] A low number of refinements arrived from published tenders (as for the Upper Dabus power plant) and from feasibility studies that arrived after 2014 (as for the TAMS hydropower plant). For the Solar power plants, also documents from the Scaling Solar initiative of the World Bank have been used.

Some candidate hydropower plants on the list have a much higher LCOE than CCGT power plants, wind farms or solar farms. Usually this means that the affected candidate power plants are out of play. Nevertheless, they might still be considered for immediate construction as the LCOE does not account for any multipurpose use beyond electricity generation.

Some hydropower plants with high LCOE values are definitely multipurpose plants. Some of these high LCOE hydropower plants provide flood control, others allow advanced irrigation schemes for better agriculture (up to several thousands of km²) or they keep perennial and intermittent rivers navigable all year round.