Odebrecht Angola, the engineering and construction arm of the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, plans to start operating the last two turbines of the 2,004 MW Laúca hydroelectric project on the Kwanza river (Angola) between June and December 2019. Construction works are currently 90% complete and the full commissioning is set to start by the end of the year.
In total, the project entails six Francis turbines with an installed capacity of 334 MW each, provided by the Austrian plant engineering group Andritz. The first one was commissioned in August 2017. So far, four turbines have started operations. The power plant is owned by Angola's state-run power utility Empresa Nacional de Electricidade and Odebrecht is the civil engineering and electromechanical assembly contractor.
The dam's construction took part under the framework of Angola's 2012-2017 National Development Plan and its cost amounted around US$4.5bn. Once built, it will deliver electricity to 8 million people, reaching in particular the Angolese central provinces of Huambo and Bié.