Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere Hydroelectric Power Project being spearheaded by a Joint Venture of an Egyptian and a Tanzanian company is 97% complete, an official has announced.
Assem El Gazzar, Egypt’s minister for housing made the announcement during an inspection tour of the project.
The project includes the construction of a dam with a length of 1,025m and has been completed.
The storage capacity of the dam lake reaches 34 billion m3. It also includes a hydropower plant with a capacity of 2,115 MW.
The station is located on the side of Rufiji River in a natural reserve in “Morgoro” southwest of the city of Dar es Salaam (the commercial capital) and the largest city in Tanzania, where 33 billion m3 were stored in the dam lake and the water reached a level of 184m above sea level, as the minimum operating level for turbines is 163 m above sea level.
The main dam, 4 subsidiary dams to form the water reservoir, intake works, 3 tunnels for the passage of the necessary water to the turbine building have been completed.
Also completed on Julius Nyerere Hydroelectric power project is an electricity distribution and connection station, and a permanent concrete bridge over Rufiji River.
The work is ongoing in the main structure of the turbine building, which is one of the most important units of the project, as civil works for the turbine assembly building (Erection Bay) completed.
Three giant cranes – with a load capacity of 400 tons per winch – were installed necessary to install the main units of the turbines, and the supplied parts of the turbines are currently being installed.
This work is being carried out according to the highest quality levels, in addition to the auxiliary electromechanical systems.
The installation of the transformers has been completed for 27 transformers, towers and connecting lines between the turbine building station and the interconnecting station.
The installation of 2 turbines Nos. (8 – 9) has been completed, and turbine No. 7 is being completed, including the auxiliary and control systems, and connecting it to the main control building.
They indicated that testing work is being carried out for the two turbines (7-8), and the final operation of turbine No. 9 has been completed, to generate 235 MW and upload it to the external network of Tanzania.
The installation of the turbine package is underway after the concrete work for the entire building has been completed, besides the completion of phases 1 and 2 for concrete works, the turbine outlet building, and river dredging works with a total of 250,000 m3.
The interior finishing is being completed. The building’s exterior finishing, the foundation layer work for the permanent roads have been completed; the final layer work and paving work are being completed.
The distribution and interconnection station with a capacity of 400 KVA was completed, connecting it to the Chalinzi station in Morgoro region and to the capital Dar es Salaam.
The testing and operation were carried out successfully, as the interconnection line was tested and received the electricity necessary for the initial operation and tests of the turbines, as well as the start of generating electricity from the turbines and uploading it to the external network.
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