The sound of the waves in the Kuanza River seems to express Angola's deep desire for stable and clean electricity. Nowadays, in the middle reaches of this "mother river", a giant hydropower station known as the "Three Gorges Project of Africa" - Kaikai Hydropower Station, is gradually becoming a reality with the hands of Chinese builders. On April 10th local time, a decisive moment arrived at the project site: the first batch of roller compacted concrete for the main body of the dam was officially poured. On the huge warehouse surface, machinery roared and construction was orderly, marking the entry of this super project with a total installed capacity of 2172 megawatts into the most core stage of dam body pouring.

Build a solid foundation for opening the warehouse and pouring the foundation stone

The smooth pouring of the first batch of concrete is not achieved overnight. To ensure that everything is foolproof, the project department has made careful preparations. They have held multiple special meetings to systematically inspect and debug the entire process of sand and gravel aggregate production, concrete mixing, transportation into warehouses, paving and rolling, temperature control monitoring, and even abnormal concrete construction. By optimizing the warehouse surface design, scientifically allocating resources, and closely connecting processes, the team successfully completed this critical pouring with high quality, laying a good foundation for the entire dam concrete pouring campaign.

This successful pouring is another major engineering milestone that the project has overcome since the dam interception was achieved on May 20, 2023. After the successful interception, the project department scientifically coordinated and faced difficulties, steadily advancing various construction tasks. They not only focus on improving basic management, but also actively practice localized operation, effectively resolving many production risks, successfully achieving the main goals of the stage, winning unanimous recognition and high praise from owners, supervisors and other units, and establishing an excellent performance image of Chinese enterprises in Angola.

Grab the golden window of construction

With the completion of the first concrete pouring, the construction of Kaikai Hydropower Station has entered a new rhythm. The project department has formulated the next operational plan: to focus on improving the concrete pouring strength of the dam, promoting the installation of metal structures, and achieving the handover of the civil engineering and mechanical and electrical work surfaces of the factory building.

The dry season in Angola is the golden period for construction. The project team is working on reversing the construction schedule and creating a map, determined to seize this precious time, strengthen the connection and resource guarantee between various processes, and make every effort to promote the continuous pouring of hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of dam concrete and the construction of supporting facilities in the future. The acceleration of each link is accumulating strength for the ultimate power generation goal.

Inject the power of developing China

The Kaikai Hydropower Station is not only the largest hydropower station currently constructed by Chinese companies in Angola, but also a landmark project of deep cooperation between China and Angola in the fields of infrastructure and energy. The power station is located in the third stage of the eighth level development in the middle reaches of the Kuanzha River. It adopts a roller compacted concrete gravity dam type, with a maximum dam height of 116 meters and a dam axis length of 533 meters. The total amount of roller compacted concrete required for the entire dam is about 1.58 million cubic meters. After the completion of the power station, the normal water level elevation of the reservoir will reach 630 meters, forming a huge reservoir with a total storage capacity of about 436 million cubic meters.

Its total installed capacity of 2172 megawatts of strong electricity will become the stable and clean power pillar of Angola's power grid in the future. After the project is completed and put into operation, it will greatly alleviate the power shortage in Angola, inject a steady stream of green kinetic energy into the local economic and social development, contribute Chinese technology, Chinese management and Chinese programs with practical actions, and become another model project of China Africa infrastructure cooperation and energy cooperation under the the Belt and Road framework. The builders are using their wisdom and sweat to help Angola transform the hydropower of the Kuanza River into a brilliant light that illuminates the country's future development.Editor/Yang Meiling