[2019-10-17] Caculo Cabaça Dam in Angola begins expected to start producing electricity in 2024

Source: Macauhub

The first turbine of a total of four at the Caculo Cabaça hydroelectric facility, under construction in the Angolan province of Kwanza Norte, will start producing electricity from 2024, Energy and Water Minister João Baptista Borges said on Tuesday in Luanda.

Caculo Cabaça, which is 103 metres high, will be the largest hydroelectric complex in the country, with a capacity to produce 2,172 megawatts of power, after Laúca, with 2,070 megawatts, and is the fourth such project built along the middle Kwanza, after the Capanda and Laúca (Malanje) and Cambambe (Kwanza Norte) dams.

In an interview with the Angop news agency and Angolan Public Television (TPA), the minister said that construction work was underway to build the tunnel for the diversion of the river in Caculo Cabaça, municipality of Banga, “work that was essential for work on building the dam to begin.”

Borges also said talks were underway to secure financing for the dam’s electro-mechanical equipment to be supplied by German companies.

This project is of particular importance, according to the minister, “because it will meet the country’s needs, as growth in demand is around 12.5% per year, which means that consumption doubles every eight years, which is the construction period of this hydroelectric facility.”

He also said that the government’s strategy for the sector is to build enterprises that help anticipate growth in demand, ensuring that supply is always higher, so as not to return to the chronic deficits and constraints that have affected Luanda in the past, for example, which led to great dissatisfaction of the population.