Abstract:
In rural areas of Ethiopia, modern forms of energy are not available. Traditional sources such as
fuel wood, cow dung, and crop residue are being depleted rapidly thereby deepening the rural
energy crisis. Compared with other new and renewable sources of energy, hydropower has been
recognized as being a viable and mature technology. It can be applied immediately on an
economic scale in a flexible manner and can comparatively easily bring benefits to the
population in isolated areas, who are so far not covered by national electricity supply grid.
Only less than one percent of the rural population, which is eighty two percent, of Ethiopia has
access to electricity. However, a number of irrigation dams have been constructed and planned
for implementation which could generate and provide electricity to the rural population in
addition to its irrigation requirement.
A case study regarding generating hydropower had been conducted on Tendaho dam, which is
one of irrigation earth dams in Afar Regional State so as to integrate it with hydropower.
Accordingly a number of objectives were accomplished like collecting, processing and analyzing
meteorological data, collecting and preparing input data for the DP model, establishing reservoir
operation rule curve, formulation of discrete dynamic programming model.
A Visual Basic Program was written to solve the DP model. The main results obtained were
monthly energy output, energy output duration curve and optimal reservoir operation guide
curve. The yearly average energy production for the mean monthly inflow data is found to be
7563.47 MWh.
The results of this study showed that it is possible to produce a valuable amount of electric
energy that is very useful in electrifying the rural community without affecting its irrigation
service by applying systems engineering as a planning tool. Based on the findings, conclusions
and recommendations for further studies are drawn.
