The first mini hydroelectric power station to be operating in Timor-Leste, is being built in Gariuai, a little community situated between Baucau city and Venilale.

A local crew built the four kilometres transmission line connecting to the existing grids. The national electricity company edtl assisted with routing, and donated poles and isolators.

Photo: Basil Rolandsen / Bouvet Photography

A hydropower station generates electricity by leading water under pressure through a turbine. The water is collected from a place higher than the turbine site and led through a pipe down to the site. A generator is connected to the turbine and produces electricity, which is then available through the electricity grid.

In Gariuai, the water will be collected from two springs, Wainalale and Builai, before being piped 1700 metres down to a powerhouse with turbine, 187 metres lower. The up to 202 litres per second of water creates enough pressure to run a turbine generating a maximum of 326 kw (thousand watts), depending on availability of water, which changes during the year. Then the water is released back to the stream, where it will continue to irrigate rice paddies and supply villages.

Construction Manager Vasco Pinto (left) and Senior Adviser Alf Adeler inspects the joints of the penstock. These high quality pipes are capable of transporting high-pressured water when installed correctly.

Photo: Basil Rolandsen / Bouvet Photography

The electricity generated in Gariuai will be made available to the people living in the area through the local power grid, including in Baucau city. A transmission line has been built to connect the powerhouse to the existing 22 kv grid, four kilometres away. Electricity will be generated continuously, providing power night and day. Allowing for 360 hours of maintenance per year, the plant will operate 8400 hours and produce around 1.5 gwh annually (calculated from estimated available water flow).

The Gariuai mini hydroelectric power plant will be a significant addition to the Baucau area. Today, electricity is generated by diesel, which is increasingly expensive in addition to polluting the environment. Hydropower is clean, renewable, reliable, environmentally friendly energy, with low operating cost and long life expectancy – what the people of Timor-Leste need.

Workers compact soil around the penstock in an erosion secured area of the pipeline. A two-week rotation scheme involving eight aldeias distributes income and training to around 1200 people.

Photo: Basil Rolandsen / Bouvet Photography

More than 1200 local workers participate to the construction of the plant – many through a two-week rotation scheme involving eight aldeias, securing that many people benefit from income and training through the project. The rotation is managed by the construction manager Mr Vasco Pinto, himself a local, in cooperation with the suco leader Mrs Maria. The site work includes construction of four kilometres of temporary roads to the site, digging and later backfilling of 2350 metres of ditches for the pipes (“penstock”), construction of intakes at the two springs and of two culverts, pipe installation, soil erosion prevention, construction of power house and installing of the turbine, as well as gate clearing, pole erection and cabling for the four kilometre long transmission line. A considerable amount of work done by a committed crew!

Construction Manager Vasco Pinto (left) with students from the local vocational training institute in Fatumaka, attached to the project as trainees.

Photo: Basil Rolandsen / Bouvet Photography

In addition to the site workers, others participate: A crew of youth with preparing the electricity poles in Dili before transportation to the site. Students with the local vocational training institute in Fatumaka participate as trainees. An external consultant in cooperation with the environmental authorities (dnsma) has done the environmental screening and made a monitoring plan. The Norwegian jv Norconsult / Norplan with planning and consultancy.

This project is a part of an institutional cooperation between the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate and the Timor-Leste Ministry of Natural Resources, Minerals and Energy Policy. It has been made possible by a grant from the Government of Norway. It is a gift in friendship from the people of Norway to the people of Timor-Leste.