Rehabilitation of Hale hydropower station in progress
What you need to know:
Major rehabilitation will include the replacement of old turbines installed in 1964
Hale. Preparations for major rehabilitation of Hale Hydropower Station in Pangani District are in top gear. Pangani Hydrosystems manager Mahenda Stephen Mahenda told editors who visited the facility recently that the work would be financed by Sweden through its development agency – Sida.
“Feasibility studies were conducted in 2007 and in 2010,” he said, noting that following the studies, Sweden decided to finance the rehabilitation.
Mr Mahenda explained that they had already picked a consulting contractor who they were working with to finalise the preparations.
He said they had already conducted pre-qualification of contractors interested in the work and they would finalise bidding documents in a few weeks to enable them to bid for the work.
According to Mr Mahenda, the hydropower project targets an overhaul of the entire system and modernise it, including replacing the two turbines.
“The two turbines were installed in 1964. They are very old and it is very difficult to get spare parts, whenever they break down because even the company, which manufactured them, has stopped manufacturing such type of turbines,” he said.
Hale has the installed capacity to produce 21MW, but currently only one of them produces 4MW. The second one has been grounded due to a technical problem.
Mr Mahenda said the work would also involve the construction of a tunnel for the underground station, where the turbines had been installed.
Currently, the station can be accessed through a 70-metre deep shaft served with a lift, which can accommodate only four people at a time.
“We are going to construct a large tunnel to enable people to go underground with cars,” he said.
