Dondo, Angola, 22 Nov – The first of four new turbines to be installed at the Cambambe hydroelectric dam, in Angola’s Kwanza Norte province, is due to start producing electricity as of June 2011, a source from Brazilian company Odebrecht said Friday in Dondo.

Douglas Paulino Duarte, an Odebrecht official responsible for carrying out the dam’s modernisation programme, told Angolan  news agency Angop that tests on the new equipment, initially scheduled to be carried out between December and March 2011, would see a slight delay.

He gave assurances that all constraints of an administrative nature were expected to be overcome by December, which would speed up execution of the work and thus conclusion of the project by 2012, in line with the schedule agreed by Empresa Nacional de Electricidade (ENE) and Odebrecht.

Douglas Paulino said that the new generator groups, now being installed, each had the capacity to produce 67 megawatts of electricity, exceeding the current 45 megawatts produced by each group.

The project for modernisation of the Cambambe dam, launched in March 2009, is part of the government’s programme for national reconstruction and include refurbishment, increasing the height of the dam and construction of a new power plant.

As well as Elecnor and Odebrecht, the project for modernisation of the Cambambe dam, located in the municipality of the same name in Kwanza Norte province, also involves German consortium Voith, responsible for supplying the turbines, Alston, a French company which supplies the turbines and Engevix, a Brazilian electrical engineering company.

The Cambambe dam was built between 1958 and 1962, and currently has four turbines producing 45 megawatts each. (macauhub)