Africa-Press – Angola. The Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges, demanded this Wednesday, from the contractor, the completion of the rehabilitation and expansion works of the Luachimo hydroelectric dam, ongoing since January 2017, in the city of Dundo, municipality of Chitato, Lunda Norte province.
The Angolan State has already paid for the project, estimated at 212 million, 310 thousand and 22 US dollars.
João Borges, made this demand at the end of the visit to the project, highlighting that it is the Angolan State’s desire to launch the largest energy project in the eastern region of the country, still this year, to reduce fuel costs and avoid as much as possible the supply of energy from thermal sources.
The technicians said that they are recovering some damage recorded in the machines due to the silting of the plant’s duct and the adduction channel and in the next few days work will begin on the last turbine so that by the first week of November the dam will be in operation at 100 Percent.
“It will be necessary, to avoid further silting of the plant’s pipeline and adduction channel, to mobilize significant means to remove the accumulation of sand that occurs upstream of the plant, which results from mining activity”, he stressed.
Budgeted at 212 million US dollars, the contract included the rehabilitation of mechanical equipment, execution of a new hydraulic circuit sized for 240 cubic meters of water per second, consisting of water intake, adduction channel, loading chamber and channel of refund.
A new 60 kilovolt substation was also built and the access road to the dam was remodeled, including the passage to the power station.
The plant’s new infrastructure is 35 meters high, the equivalent of an 11-storey building, installed in an area 50 meters long and 30 meters in cross section.
The old power station building was rehabilitated to serve technical education institutions, with the aim of being the first museum in the energy sector in Angola.
The project includes the restoration of the 85-kilometer high-voltage transmission line to the mining town of Nzagi, in the municipality of Cambulo, with an additional value estimated at US$40 million.
The last stage of the project foresees the expansion of the distribution network to the Lucapa headquarters, including the town of Calonda.
The transport line will also pass through the towns of Fucauma and Cassanguidi, taking into account the existence of economic activities, especially in the mining sector.
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