Beles Hydroelectric Power Plant

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Tana Beles is a newly built hydropower plant in Ethiopia, is used with the water from Lake Tana to generate electricity and to irrigate the Belestals.

Power station

Underground power station

The underground power station consists of an intake structure at the village Kunzila at 1784 m asl nearby Lake Tana (11 ° 52 ' 57 "N, 37 ° 0' 42" O11.88260156666737.011542141944 ), a 12 km long pressure tunnel with an internal diameter of 7.2 m, a 270 m deep vertical pressure shaft to the underground power house with four Francis turbines and generators ( 11 ° 49 '5 " N, 36 ° 55' 24 " O11.81805555555636.923333333333 ), subsequent to the turbine draft tubes, and finally a 7.2 km long tunnel to the outlet structure discharge into the river Beles (11 ° 46 ' 39 " N, 36 ° 52 '1 " O11.77748176333336.866810143611 ). Above ground are visible only the inlet and outlet structures and the ventilation shaft and the entrances to the cavern, the switchyard and a variety of office and residential buildings.

The power plant is designed for a water flow of 160 m³ / s. The case height is about 301 m.

Dam 1243

With the water also should be watered in Belestal 140,000 hectares of agricultural land. To this end, a series of weirs and the smaller dam built in 1243, the sea level according to their position in 1243 m was named (11 ° 39 ' 43 "N, 36 ° 41' 12" O11.66185009638936.686598046944 ). f1 map with all coordinates of power plant: OSM, Google and Bing

History

The construction company was the Italian Salini Costruttori SPA as well as the construction of Gilgel Gibe III on the Omo. The staff responsible for the planning and execution of the overall project company had Studio Pietrangeli commissioned with the planning of the power plant and Andritz Hydro to supply and installation of the turbines and the entire electrical equipment. The construction lasted from 2006 to 2010.

The hydropower plant was in May 2010 with the first of four turbines, each 115 MW. The construction costs amounted to 7.1 billion Birr or 70 million euros.

Two other hydropower stations were inaugurated in the same year in Ethiopia already: Tekeze (400 MW) and Gilgel Gibe II (320 MW).