The government has decided to close in the long run the country’s hydropower plants and devote the power-generating dams to the irrigation and supply the population with drinking water, a source of Energy Ministry told APS Wednesday.
"The needs of the population in water are currently significant that the government has decided to no longer use dams for generating the electricity," the same source added.
The government intends to mobilize all the surface water resources of the country to ensure better water supply for the population.
In this regard, it plans to bring the number of dams from 70 to 100.
According to the same source, this decision of stopping power generation from the dams is driven by the fact that the level of the production in the hydroelectric generating stations remains “insignificant”, contributing very little to Algeria’s energy record.
The production of the hydraulic section accounts only for 389.4 GWh out of the 28,950 GWh produced by SPE, the Sonelgaz subsidiary responsible of power generation.
The bulk of electricity production, i.e. 18,723 GWh comes from gas.
Now, only two dams generate power in Algeria, namely Ighil Emda Dam in Kherrata (Bejaia) and Erraguen Dam in Jijel.