Work continues on what can be the biggest hydropower challenge in Angola, a $5.2 billion run-of-river energy station that Angolan officers have mentioned may come on-line as early as 2026.
Know-how group Voith on Dec. 19 mentioned it’s supplying all {the electrical} and mechanical gear for the Caculo Cabaca facility, positioned within the midstream of the Kwanza River, within the Kwanza Norte province. Voith on Tuesday mentioned the gear order consists of set up of 5 Francis generators, that includes 4 with 530 MW of era capability, and a single 52-MW unit. Voith is also supplying turbines, together with management and auxiliary methods, and is offering what it referred to as a “custom-made coaching idea.”
The challenge is being developed by Angola’s Ministry of Power and Water. The dam on the web site is being constructed by China Gezhouba Group Corp. Caculo Cabaca is upstream of the Lauca hydropower station, presently Angola’s largest hydroelectric plant with 2,070 MW of era capability.
“We’re completely delighted to be contributing to this milestone challenge on the African continent,” mentioned Dr. Toralf Haag, CEO of Voith Group. “This essential challenge might be coordinated from Heidenheim, the place many of the worth creation might be generated on the firm’s headquarters. This makes the challenge execution difficult from each a technological and logistical perspective. Our skilled workforce of specialists has subsequently been getting ready the work meticulously for a number of years now.”
The Caculo Cabaca station includes a 103-meters-high concrete dam with a crest size of 553 meters. The 4 bigger generators are within the underground powerhouse, with the 52-MW unit positioned adjoining to the dam. The dam has about 440 million cubic meters of water storage capability.
Electrical energy from the challenge will provide Angola’s nationwide grid and likewise the Southern African Energy Pool, a aggressive vitality market that serves the southern African area. Energy might be moved from the station through a 400-kV transmission line.
Growth of the hydroelectric challenge started in 2017, with a lot of the preliminary financing from the Industrial and Industrial Financial institution of China. Further funding for the hydromechanical and electromechanical gear being provided by Voith was granted by the German authorities, together with a German banking consortium led by Commerzbank and UniCredit.
Voith has been concerned within the improvement of hydropower initiatives throughout Africa for almost a century, together with supplying gear for the Cambambe 1 and Cambambe 2 hydropower items on the Kwanza River in Cuanza Norte. Cambambe in complete has 960 MW of era capability. The corporate mentioned it has established a “six-stage coaching idea … for regional employees” for the Caculo Cabaca challenge, and likewise is working a coaching heart in Angola. Voith mentioned the challenge has created about 7,000 jobs.
“We see ourselves as a companion for sustainable challenge implementation and supply assist to plant operators and governments, from joint challenge improvement to the coaching of personnel,” mentioned Dr. Tobias Keitel, president and CEO of Voith Hydro.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior affiliate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
