[3] The Government of Ethiopia signed a contract with Salini Costruttori to build the plant on July 8, 2005, and construction began soon after.

[4] Because of the project's remote location, transportation and manning of personnel and equipment was difficult, often taking 4–5 months for supplies to arrive.

[6] Salini Costruttori awarded a sub contract to construct the actual power station to VA Tech Hydro.

[3] Once the water is used in hydroelectric production it is then discharged from the power station to the Beles River via a 7.2 km (4.5 mi) tailrace tunnel with the same diameter as the headrace.

[12] The social impacts of the Tana-Beles water transfer have been studied and results published in the high-profile Journal of Hydrology: the dangerously high increases in discharge of Beles river have led to the drowning of 250 people between 2010 and 2018.

After the inauguration of the power plant, statements were released from a meeting of Egyptian officials, one of which was "Tana Beles dam aims to provoke Egypt’s anger and lead it to take swift diplomatic action which would turn the global opinion in favor of the upstream Nile countries."

Under colonial-era accords, only Sudan and Egypt were to benefit from the Nile's flow and could reject any upstream projects that would impede it.