The Luachimo Hydroelectric Dam, a USD 212 million project financed by China in Angola´s Lunda Norte province, is gearing up for start-up.
According to the director of the project for the rehabilitation and expansion of the infrastructure, Joaquim Costa, the acceptance tests of the equipment, for the preparation of the start-up of the first two turbines has begun.
The first two turbines, with the capacity to produce 17 megawatts of electricity, are already installed, and the assembly of the other two, with the same power, is over 60 percent complete, Costa told Angolan news agency Angop.
The tests of the gates, railings, sound system, among others, consist of verifying the conformity of the equipment, he added.
The project, financed by a credit line from China, will increase the energy capacity provided by the infrastructure from 8.4 to 34 megawatts (MW), and about 50 percent of the energy produced will remain as a reserve.
With four generator sets of 8.5 megawatts each, the project will allow the expansion of energy for the benefit of 186 thousand residents in the city of Dundo and in the municipalities of Cambulo and Lucapa, including the towns of Fucauma, Cassanguidi, Luxilo and Calonda.
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In addition to household connections, which in the first phase will benefit more than nine thousand families, the project provides for around 30 industrial connections.
Currently, 17,950 customers, in the municipality of Chitato, are supplied by a thermal power plant with 30 megawatts, while the nine municipalities in the interior are supplied with generator sets, which benefits around ten thousand families.
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