Tanzania's Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project Completed And Operational

Tanzania's ambitious hydropower project called Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP) has been completed and is now operational. The project involved construction of a gigantic hydropower dam and associated hydropower station.

On the one hand, the hydropower dam called Julius Nyerere Hydropower Dam is reportedly a roller compacted concrete dam. It is 134 metres high and 1025 metres long. Its reservoir has a catchment area of 1200 square kilometres and maximum length of 100 kilometres.

On the other hand, the hydropower station has 9 turbines and power generation capacity of 2115 megawatts, making Julius Nyerere Hydropower Dam the largest hydropower dam in East Africa and 2nd largest in Africa after Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that has power generation capacity of 6450 megawatts. Aswan High Dam in Egypt, with power generation capacity of 2100 megawatts is the third largest in Africa while the fourth largest is Cahora Basa Dam in Mozambique, with power generation capacity of 2070 megawatts.

Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project In Tanzania, 2025

JNHPP is located across the Rufiji River at Stiegler’s Gorge in Selous Game Reserve in southeast of Tanzania. Implementation of the project hence construction of the hydropower dam and the hydropower station began in February 2019, at a cost of $2.9 billion. The construction was carried out by a consortium of two Egyptian firms, namely, Arab Contractors and El Sewedy Electric, with Tanzanian and Egyptian workers, as well as the government of Ethiopia as project implementation advisor to the government of Tanzania.

Construction of the gigantic hydropower dam and the hydropower station was completed on March 22, 2025, after the hydropower station's 9th turbine was installed, according to announcement by the government of Tanzania that was reported by some African media recently. Thereafter, the hydropower station is said to have been connected to the national electricity grid and became operational.

Tanzania's current electricity demand is 1482.82 megawatts and increasing at a rate of 10-15% per year as of 2023 by the country's state owned electricity supply firm called Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO). The demand in 2025 would therefore be higher, with some sources estimating it at 1908 megawatts.

Hitherto the connection of Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station to the national electricity grid, the country had power generation capacity of 1899.05 megawatts as of 2023 by TanzaniaInvest. The installed capacity is said to emanate from power plants that are based on four types of energy sources as thus.

• 63% (1193.82 megawatts) from natural gas power plants

• 32% (601.60 megawatts) from hydropower plants

• 4% (83.93 megawatts) from heavy fuel power plants

• 1% (10.5 megawatts) from power plants that use biomass and other renewable energy resources

As such, with the additional installed capacity of 2115 megawatts of electricity of the new hydropower station, Tanzania now has abundant superfluous electricity for future increased demand, as well as catalysing rapid industrial growth. In the meantime, however, the surplus electricity could be sold to neighboring countries that are connected to the national electricity grid.

All in all, JNHPP is an incredible infrastructure project in Africa, that was planned, designed, and implemented by Africans themselves. It demonstrates that Africa has technological capacity for delivering big development projects. This capacity will even get better with time, if more African countries will turn to African firms for planning, design, and implementation of their development projects, in order to make Africa great once and for all!

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