Tanzania formally inaugurated the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station on 22 August 2026. President Samia Suluhu Hassan led the ceremony at the plant on the Rufiji River, with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly attending on behalf of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
The ceremony marks the official commissioning of all nine generating units. Each unit is a 235 MW vertical Francis turbine, giving the station its full installed capacity of 2,115 MW, the largest of any power plant in Tanzania.
Already the backbone of the grid
The station was generating long before the ribbon was cut. Its first power reached the grid in February 2024, and according to TANESCO it supplied 43.5% of all electricity fed into the national grid in 2025, rising to roughly half in 2026.
Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy now puts national installed capacity at about 4.6 GW against peak demand of around 2.27 GW. The government is discussing electricity exports with neighbours including Kenya and Zambia.
Who built it and what it cost
An Egyptian joint venture of Arab Contractors and Elsewedy Electric delivered the project under an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth about US$2.9 billion, awarded in December 2018. The Tanzanian government financed the scheme from its own revenue, at a reported total cost of TZS 7.45 trillion.
Beyond power generation, the dam is intended to regulate flows on the Rufiji River, reduce flood risk downstream and hold water through the dry season.
Sources: The Citizen, Water Power Magazine, Enerdata.