Aysha Wind Farm to enter the national grid

Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), which officially launched the first power generation from the national flagship project of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), is under preparation to inaugurate Aysha Wind Farm II, located at the Ethio-Djibouti border.
Moges Mekonnen, Public Relation Head of EEP, said that the project which is located at Shenelle Woreda of Sitti Zone of Somali region has a capacity to generate 120 MW of power.
“New technologies and design that have never been seen in the first three wind farm projects in the country have been implemented. For instance each windmill and generator has a capacity to generate 2.5 MW at maximum which is higher than that of 1.5 MW at the other existing three farms,” he explained.
The wind speed per second at Aysha is very high compared with the other developed areas, due to that the design has been revised from the initial plan of installing 80 windmills to 48 windmills, whilst maintaining similar generation capacity.
“The project has 8 energy clusters that manage six windmills each. So far 32 of the 48 turbines have been fully completed, while the erection work only remains for 16 turbines,” the Public Relation Head revealed to Capital.
He said that by now the generation capacity for 80 MW is almost concluded and now the 16 turbines with a conbined generating capacity of 40 MW will go operational.
The EPC project is managed by the Chinese Dongfang Electricity and 85 percent of the USD 257.3 million worth project is covered by Exim Bank of China while the remainder is covered from the national coffer. Aysha is located about 700 km east of Addis Ababa and 173 km from the Dire Dawa.
The other operational wind farms are Ashegoda, Adama I and II, with a total installed capacity of 324 MW.
A week ago at the big event held at Guba, the first two turbines of GERD, which was being constructed on Abay River officially started the production of 375 MW of energy.
In related developments EEP is said that the compensation claim on the ongoing projects is affecting its activities.
Moges said that the compensation claim which is being requested by the community on some project areas is becoming very high and against the reality on ground.
“Sometimes compensation request are higher than the total project costs, which is totally unacceptable to be settled,” he said adding that such kind of issues have forced EEP to pause some projects.
He called on the public to understand the motive of the projects which primarily benefit the community who reside at the project areas.