According to the Ethiopian government, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) hydropower project on the Nile river will not be completed until 2022 because of possible defects with the hydro-electrical equipments handled by state-held Metals and Engineering Corporation. The company was in charge of the electro-mechanical and hydraulic steel structure divisions but was considered not having the experience required to handle such a complex task and was ousted from the project in August 2018.
Initially expected to be completed in 5 years, the project has been significantly delayed and no single turbine is operational 8 years after the construction startup. The main construction contractor of the dam is Italy-based company Salini Impregilo. The power plant's long-term power generation design capacity was initially expected to reach 5,250 MW but was later upgraded to 6,450 MW in March 2017. The latest figures indicate that the dam is currently 65% complete.