Due to the quickly developing demand for electricity in Ethiopia, operational power plants are listed as well as those under construction and also proposed ones likely to be built within a number of years.
In the year 2014 Ethiopia had – according to an estimation of the CIA – an annual electricity production of 9.5 TWh and was at position 101 worldwide.
[2] In July 2017, the country had a total installed capacity of ~4.3 GWe and an annual electricity production of 12.5 TWh.
Also, an incomplete selection of operational off-grid power plants (Self-Contained Systems (SCS)) is provided by additional lists.
The SCS power stations are either small hydropower or Diesel generators usually with an installed capacity <1 MW each.
Most lists also provide the annual capacity factor for the power plants, which are the actual numbers for the Ethiopian fiscal year 2016/2017 (ended in July 2017).
The lists arrived from a survey of newspapers, World Bank documents and reports, including the EEP itself.
[3] Run-of-river schemes (without reservoir) totally depend on the flow of the river, which might be low in times of drought.
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.
[33] 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.
[35] 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.
Ethiopia is specifying its solar parks with the ac-converted nominal power output MWac instead of the standard dc-based MWp.
[37][36] All solar parks will be operated by private owners equipped with a long-term power purchase agreement.
[38] The power plant operates with a 110 MWth boiler that is designed to deliver sufficient steam to one single 25 MWe generating unit.
The production of sugar and bioethanol requires thermal and electrical energy, both which is provided through the combustion of bagasse.
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.
Such low-cost wind turbines can have a prolonged lifetime and can even be competitive with large-scale ICS power plants considering the total cost of electricity.
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.
[37][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.
[50] 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.
This happens in the hope to have many power plants being constructed simultaneously, something, Ethiopia cannot do due to its own limited financial resources.
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 MWe) for the LCOE ranges given for the year 2025.
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).
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.
The other members are Sudan, Burundi, DRC, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.