Employees celebrate the grid connection for Unit 2.
The Gribo-Popoli Hydropower Plant – the largest of its kind in Cote d'Ivoire – which is being built by POWERCHINA, achieved grid connection of Unit 2 on Aug 1, 34 days ahead of schedule.
This achievement was seen as a gift to the local people in celebration of Cote d'Ivoire's National Independence Day, which falls on Aug 7.
The Gribo-Popoli Hydropower Plant is located downstream from the completed Soubre Hydroelectric Power Station, which was also constructed by POWERCHINA.
The Gribo-Popoli Hydropower Plant is the second-stage station in the cascading development of the Sassandra River Basin in Cote d'Ivoire and is currently the largest hydropower project under construction in the country.
Financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, the project has a total installed capacity of 112.9 megawatts, a reservoir capacity of 82 million cubic meters, a dam length of approximately 4.2 kilometers and a maximum dam height of about 18.58 meters.
Once operational, it will provide 554 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually. Since work on the project started on Aug 5, 2021, major milestones such as river diversion, reservoir impoundment and power generation by the first unit were achieved ahead of schedule, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent full-scale operational phase.
