Egypt to overhaul hydropower plants amid Nile dam crisis
Egypt will replace 19 turbines at the Aswan High Dam and Aswan Low Dam as Ethiopia prepares to start producing electricity from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the coming months.
The Egyptian government plans to overhaul the hydropower stations of its dams in the southern Aswan governorate amid a dispute with Ethiopia over its megadam project on the Blue Nile, a main tributary of the Nile River.
Hisham Kamal, the head of the hydropower generation company, said the company has issued tenders for rehabilitating the hydropower plants of the Aswan High Dam and Aswan Low Dam. According to Kamal, 12 turbines will be replaced at the Aswan High Dam and seven at the Low Dam.
The cost of rehabilitating the stations is estimated at 41 million euros ($48 million), which will be financed through a loan from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development under an agreement signed with the German KfW Development Bank.
Kamal said the project includes the replacement of the main power transformers and the cooling system in power station 2 of the Aswan Low Dam.
