JNHPP to hit 90 pc of execution by end of August
MINISTER for Energy has said that the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP) has reached 89 per cent of the execution and that their expectation is to reach 90 per cent by the end of August this year.
He said over the weekend that the amount of water filling the dam has exceeded their expectations and demands, saying that they estimated to have three rain seasons in order to reach the needed 163 cubic metres of water required to commence the generation of electricity production, but in the first season alone, the water levels reached 163.61 cubic metres, giving an assurance for electricity to be generated from the facility. When completed, JNHPP will generate 2,115 megawatts of power.
“In order to generate electricity here, the minimum level of water required is 164 metres above sea level, which means we are almost there,” he said.
“The depth of the entire dam is 184 cubic metres above the sea level and the depth to be reached was 163, we were worried whether the water will be full enough to generate electricity and because of that had estimated that at least three rain seasons will be required to fill the dam, the good news is that within one phase, we have gotten beyond our demand,” he said.
He added, “All the water entering the dam right now is excess water, we could even start generating power now, just that we are still installing some machines,” said Mr January.
“Until the other day, we reached a depth of 163.61 cubic metres, we have reached and passed, so the water that continues to fill up is overflowing and if we had machines, we would start generating electricity now,” he said.
Mr Makamba said that the dam has a volume of 30 billion cubic metres and reaching yesterday (Wednesday), the amount of water that entered 13.8 billion cubic meters is equal to 43 per cent.
He said the work of installing plants continues and in February, 2024 they expect to begin testing and in June 2024 they will start generating electricity from the dam.
He clarified that on December 22, 2022, when the filling of the dam started, it had 71 cubic metres of sea level. He said that within the past eight months, there had been a significant increase in water levels.
However, he made it clear that the dam will officially start generating electricity in 2024, as they have been saying or explaining in various places, including in Parliament.
