Dundo - The equipment load tests for the entry into operation of the first two turbines of the Luachimo hydroelectric dam, in eastern Lunda Norte province, are in their final stages.
This was announce by the director of the works for rehabilitation and expansion of the infrastructure by GAMEK, Joaquim Garcia.
The announcement was made at the end of a visit by the governor of Lunda Norte, Deolinda Satula, to the dam to see the level of physical and financial execution of the project.
Director Garcia, said that the first two turbines, with capacity to produce 17 megawatts of electricity, were already fully installed and would start providing electricity at the end of November or early December.
He said that in the first phase the first two turbines would produce electricity for the municipality of Chitato, explaining that the other municipalities were waiting for a transmission grid to be built to allow for interconnection.
He also said that the transmission grid for the other municipalities was not part of the contract.
The project, he said, included two electricity sub-stations already concluded with a 60 kilovolt transmission grid.
The other two turbines, with capacity to also produce 17 megawatts, together, had already been acquired and would arrive in Angola in the next few months.
Estimated at over US$212 million, via a credit line from China, the work will increase the power capacity provided by the infrastructure from 8.4 to 34 megawatts (MW), which will exceed local needs, or around 50 percent of the power produced will remain as a reserve.
The start of this energy project, which will have a power station made up of four generator groups of 8.5 megawatts each, totalling 34 megawatts, will make it possible to expand power supply to the benefit of 186,000 residents in the city of Dundo and the municipalities of Cambulo and Lucapa, including the localities of Fucauma, Cassanguidi, Luxilo and Calonda.
As well as household connections, which in the first phase will benefit over 9,000 families, the project also includes around 30 industrial connections.
Currently, over 20,000 customers benefit from electricity from the public grid in Chitato municipality, via a 30 megawatt thermal power station, whilst the nine municipalities in the interior are supplied by generator sets.
