Voith is set to supply equipment for the large-scale hydropower plant Caculo Cabaça in Angola, West Africa. The order comprises all electrical and mechanical equipment, including the installation of four Francis turbines with an output of 530 MW each, an additional Francis turbine with an output of 52 MW, generators, control and auxiliary systems and a customised training concept.
The hydropower plant on the Kwanza River is around 250 km southeast of the capital Luanda in the province of Kwanza Norte. Caculo Cabaça is set to be connected to the grid there with a total capacity of 2172 MW before the end of the decade. The pilot tests have recently been completed. Following commissioning of this power plant, around two-thirds of Angolan energy will come from hydropower.
The order volume for Voith amounts to more than USD 1 billion. The company arranged a long-term, tailored financing package with attractive terms and conditions for the Republic of Angola. This was implemented with the support of the German government and specialists at Euler Hermes, through export credit guarantees, and a German banking consortium headed by Commerzbank and UniCredit. Especially in times of constrained budgets, the programmes offered by the German Foreign Trade and Investment Promotion Scheme are particularly important for government clients in Africa. This allows long-term and sustainable financing of the investment sums for infrastructure projects of this kind.
The project is a milestone for Angola on its journey to a ‘broader and more stable energy supply for society and industry’. The existing electricity supply reaches around half the population, so many people, mainly outside the large cities, still do not have access to electricity. This is despite the fact that Africa has a huge hydropower potential that has not yet been tapped.
Caculo Cabaça is said to be an excellent example of how a regional power supply can be expanded sustainably, efficiently, and with low emissions. The additional electricity generated in future will among other things help to replace ecologically unsound and unsustainable energy sources and supply energy to regions that have not been covered to date. Above all, however, the availability of power will improve important infrastructure facilities like hospitals. In addition, any surplus energy produced is expected to be offered to neighbouring countries, which will in turn boost Angola’s economic development.
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