The Civil Engineering Contractor November 2018 | Page 9

PROJECT OWNERS
Geothermal power project
for Rift Valley
Project: Infrastructure, thermal power
Client:
Ethiopian Electric Power
Location: Ethiopia
Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) is buying up to 500MW of electric power
generated from the Corbetti geothermal source near Hawassa from Corbetti
Geothermal Plc. The power purchase agreement was signed by Berkeley
Energy along with Reykjavik Geothermal & Iceland Drilling. Berkeley Energy
and Reykjavik Geothermal are Power Africa partners; the former is also
manager of the Africa Renewable Energy Fund (AREF). The initial project
work is valued at USD200-million, awarded by the African Development
Bank (AfDB).
Reykjavik Geothermal (RG) of Iceland has secured a 25-year power
purchase agreement with EEP for the development of a geothermal power
project on an imploded volcano in the Rift Valley. Initial funding has come
from KFW of Germany and the European Union African Fund. The total cost
is estimated at USD2-billion.
A company, Tulu Moye Geothermal Operations, also embarked on the
development of a 520MW geothermal project in the Oromia Regional State.
RG and Meridiam, a US firm, are shareholders of Tulu Moye Geothermal
Operations. The two geothermal projects will have an installed capacity of
generating 1 000MW. Tulu Moye Geothermal Operations has embarked on
environmental and social studies and has been making assessments for the past
couple of years. Geothermal studies have been going on for many years. In
terms of real investment in the project area, this will begin in October 2018.
The scheme will be developed in multiple phases. The first one will be
wholly equity funded and will involve drilling up six exploratory wells and
constructing a small power plant at the project site in Ethiopia’s Oromia
region. Corbetti expects to begin drilling the first production wells in
2018. In the second phase, the developer plans to raise senior debt to drill
an additional nine to 13 wells, and to build a 50MW commercial-scale
power plant. If successful, the full project of up to 520MW will be realised,
mobilising over USD2-billion in foreign direct investment over the next
eight to 10 years. Both the Corbetti and Tulu Moye projects should finalise
construction in eight years. Corbetti is seen to feed first power into Ethiopia’s
national grid in late 2019 or early 2020. nn
The Great Rift Valley along the east side of Africa is one of the world’s most
beautiful locations. How will it stand up to such development?
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