Masinga Hydroelectric Power Station, also Masinga Dam, is an

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...

on the Tana River, the longest

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

and straddles the border of

Embu Embu may refer to: Places ; in Brazil * Embu das Artes * Embu-Guaçu ; in Kenya * Embu, Kenya * Embu County Other

*Embu people of Kenya *Embu language, the Bantu language spoken by them {{Disamb, geo ...

and Machakos Counties in Eastern Province and is located about 106 km. (66 mi.), by road, northeast of

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

, Kenya's capital and largest city. Construction of the dam began in 1978, and was completed in 1981. It is owned by ''Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority'' (TARDA). The dam is used for power production and is part of the Seven Forks Scheme.

Dam

Masinga Dam is a 60 m tall and 2,200 m long embankment dam with a volume of 4,950,000 m³. The dam contains a

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

and a bottom outlet.

Reservoir

At full reservoir level (maximum flood level of 1,056.5 m) the reservoir of the dam has a surface area of 120 km² and its total capacity is 1,56 billion m³. Minimum operating level is normally 1,037 m. On June 26, KenGen shut down the power plant because the operating level had fallen to 1,035.5 m. At the time of the closure the plant had been producing 14 MW. Because of its large volume, the reservoir is crucial in regulating the flow of water for the other 4

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

power plants downstream.

Power plant

The

run-of-the-river Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amou ...

power plant went operational in 1981. It is owned and operated by

Kenya Electricity Generating Company Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC abbreviated to KenGen, is a government enterprise in the Republic of Kenya charged with the production of electricity for the country. KenGen is the largest electric power producer in Kenya, generating ...

(KenGen). The plant has a

nameplate capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, maximum effect or gross capacity,MW. Its average annual generation is between 128 (in 2008) and 232 (in 2007) GWh, depending on the water flow of the Tana River. The power plant contains 2

Kaplan turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to a ...

-generators with 20 MW each. The turbines were provided by

Escher Wyss Escher Wyss is a quarter in the district 5 of Zürich, centered on the Escher-Wyss-Platz square. Escher Wyss was formerly a part of Aussersihl municipality, which was incorporated into Zürich in 1893. The quarter has a population of 2,727 dis ...

, the generators by

ABB ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

. The maximum

hydraulic head Hydraulic head or piezometric head is a measurement related to liquid pressure (normalized by specific weight) and the liquid elevation above a vertical datum., 410 pages. See pp. 43–44., 650 pages. See p. 22, eq.3.2a. It is usually meas ...

is 49 m, maximum flow per turbine is 45.9 (45) m³/s.

History

Capital cost of the dam was US$172 million. Feasibility studies were made in the 1970s and they confirmed the viability of a cascade of hydroelectric power plants along the Tana River: Masinga, Kamburu, Gitaru, Kindaruma, Kiambere, Karura, Mutonga, Low Grand Falls, Usheni, Adamsons Falls, and Kora. Only the first five of them have been built so far. Plans to raise the dam by 1.5 m in order to increase the volume of the reservoir up to 2 billion m³ were finally cancelled. The cost would have been US$15 million. In February 2018, KenGen resurrected plans to raise the Masinga Dam wall by , and install pumping equipment to recycle the downstream water discharge back to the dam for steady electricity output though the dry seasons. The

French Development Agency The French Development Agency (, AFD), known from 1992 to 1998 as the Caisse Française de Développement (CFD, ), is a public financial institution that implements France's development and international solidarity policies. It works to fight pov ...

(AFD) agreed to lend the KSh21 million (€169,000) required to conduct a fresh feasibility and environment impact assessment. AFD selected

EDF Group EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, their Belgian subsidiary * Environmental Defense Fund, ...

, a French company to carry out the study. Heavy rains beginning in March 2018 led to major flooding throughout the Tana River area. On 17 May 2018, it was announced that the Masinga dam had reached capacity and had begun to overflow one week after the deadly failure of a smaller embankment dam in

Solai Solai is a town in Nakuru County, Kenya. It is located about thirty kilometers north of the county capital, Nakuru. Lake Solai lies to its north. Administratively, Solai is a location In geography, location or place is used to denote a region ...

. While safeguards in place prevented the dam from failing, other dams downstream had already reached capacity and authorities advised the evacuation of the towns of

Garissa Garissa ( Arabic: قارسا) is the capital of Garissa County, Kenya. It is situated in the former North Eastern Province. Geography The Tana River, which rises in Mount Kenya east of Nyeri, flows through Garissa. The Bour-Algi Giraffe ...

, Garsen,

Hola In molecular biology, the δ (delta) subunit of DNA polymerase III is encoded by the holA gene in '' E. coli'' and other bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biol ...

, and Bura.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masinga Dam Dams in Kenya Hydroelectric power stations in Kenya Embankment dams Dams completed in 1964 Energy infrastructure completed in 1964 1964 establishments in Kenya Reservoirs in Kenya Dams on the Tana River (Kenya) Embu County Machakos County

Dam

Reservoir

Power plant

History

See also

References