The photo is sourced from CNEEC
The facility is located across the Kaduna River, a left tributary of the Niger, the largest river in West Africa. The hydropower plant has a dam (101 meters high and 233 meters long) whose operation will create conditions for functioning of the reservoir with water capacity of 10.4 billion cubic metres. The project investments have reached $10 billion, 75% of which came from the China National Electrical Engineering Corporation, and 25% from the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Completion of the Zungeru HPP construction made it possible to increase the capacity of Nigerian HPPs by a third (up to 2.8 GW). The facility is one of three largest hydropower plants in Nigeria, which also includes the Kainji HPP (760 MW) located on the Niger River, and the Shiroro HPP (600 MW) located in the water area of the already mentioned Kaduna River. At the same time, the country has potential for future HPPs construction. According to the International Hydropower Association, up to 14 GW of hydroelectric power capacity can be located in the waters of Nigeria, which is exactly five times higher than the current total capacity of national HPPs.
According to think tank Ember, the share of HPPs in the power generation mix of Nigeria reached 27% in 2022, while the share of gas-fired thermal power plants (TPPs) was 70% and 3% – of all coal-fired plants. The dominance of gas-fired TPPs is due to the high availability of raw materials: the country ranks tenth in the world in terms of gas reserves (5.5 trillion cubic meters) with a global share of 2.9%. In addition to supplying the Nigerian TPPs, gas produced in the country is also used for production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). According to the Energy Institute, in 2022 Nigeria ranked sixth in the world in terms of LNG supplies to the world market (with a share of 3.6%), second only to Qatar (21.0%) and Australia (20.7%). ), USA (19.2%), Russia (7.4%) and Malaysia (6.9%).
