Kidatu Dam, also Kidadu Hydroelectric Power Station, is a 204 MW hydroelectric dam located in Kilosa District of Morogoro Region in Tanzania.

Location

The power station is located across the Great Ruaha River, in the village of Kilosa, in Morogoro Region, approximately 337 km, by road, southwest of Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital and largest city of Tanzania. This is about 5.5 km, by road, northeast of Kidatu, the nearest urban center. The coordinates of Kidatu Power Station are:7°39'47.0"S, 36°58'39.0"E (Latitude:-7.663056; Longitude:36.977500).

Overview

The Kidatu power plant was built in two phases under the name of Great Ruaha Power Project in the 1970s for phase one and 1980s for phase two. Phase I was completed in 1975 starting with the construction of an earth-rock fill dam, a generating capacity of 2 x 51 MW, and 220 kV transmission line to Dar es Salaam via Morogoro. Phase II, completed in 1980, involved two more 51 MW generators, and construction of a bigger storage dam (Mtera Dam) with a capacity of 3200 e6m3. The plant has undergone two major rehabilitation works. Phase I covered repairs to turbines one and two, replacement of excitation equipment and repair of a damaged generator unit. These works were executed from 1993 to 1994. The second rehabilitation commenced in 1999. Major works were computerizing the control and protection system, repair to turbines, replacement of runners on units 1 and 2, generators and water ways. The project was financed by SIDA, NORAD and Tanesco at the estimated cost of about US$12 million. In 2017, repairs were carried out on one of the 51 megawatts units which had failed. The work was carried out by engineers and technicians from the Croatian manufactures of the turbines, and personnel from Tanesco, the national electricity generation monopoly. The next major maintenance on the power station, is planned for 2020.

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