Addis Ababa (AMECO) – The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is rapidly emerging as an anchor for East Africa’s regional energy grid, exporting electricity across borders and generating crucial foreign currency reserves for Addis Ababa.
In a recent on-site report broadcast on TikTok, international broadcaster CNN highlighted the immense scale and cross-border potential of the hydroelectric infrastructure on the Abay river. Reporting from the crest of the dam, journalist Victoria Rubadiri noted that beyond bringing power to millions of off-grid Ethiopian households, the facility is actively supplying electricity to neighbouring nations.
Eng Kifle Horo, the project manager for Gerd, told CNN that the facility ranks among the world’s largest dams by reservoir capacity. Reaching a height of 145 metres and spanning 1.8 kilometres, the mega-project took more than 14 years to build before its official inauguration last September, serving as a landmark achievement for Ethiopian engineering.
Detailing the current extent of regional integration, Eng Kifle confirmed that Ethiopia is presently exporting 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Kenya. The high-voltage transmission line connecting the two nations possesses an overall transfer capacity of up to 2,000 MW.
Sudan and Djibouti are now fully synchronized with Ethiopia’s power grid, while initial work on grid interconnection with Tanzania has been successfully completed.
Under expanded regional energy plans, power lines will extend to South Sudan and Somalia in the coming years, with the ultimate ambition of creating a fully interconnected East African power pool.
