Angola inaugurates Laúca Hydroelectric Plant, built by OEC

The official inauguration was attended by the President of Angola, João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, as well as by the national press and community leaders. The project generated more than 60,000 jobs and is currently responsible for 40% of the country’s energy needs.

The Angolan government on May 12^th inaugurated the Lauca Hydroelectric Dam, work built by OEC – Engenharia e Construção, which adds 65.5 megawatts generated by the Ecological Power Station to the energy complex, the biggest in the country and one of the biggest in Africa. With the conclusion of the work, Laúca offers 2,070 megawatts of installed capacity, approximately 40% of Angola’s energy demand, with total annual production capacity of 9,000 GWh.

The large structures that make up the Lauca AH are the result of the advanced technologies used and efficient engineering capable of developing the best projects and most suitable solutions. To understand the enormity of the project, the dam is 1,070 meters long and 156 meters high and has an artificial lake with an area of 188 square kilometers. The main plant is 100% underground and houses six generators, each with 334 megawatts of capacity.

The importance and quality of OEC execution has also been recognized by Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine, which, in the year 2021, awarded Laúca the Global Best Projects award, considered the Oscar of world engineering, in the Energy/Industrial category.

Manpower

Laúca generated over 10,000 direct jobs and 53,000 indirect jobs, with 95 percent of the staff made up of Angolans. The project has been committed from the outset to providing opportunities for national cadres. Over 2,300 workers were trained and hired through the Acreditar Program, with basic and specific training in various professions such as blacksmiths, carpenters, among others. In addition, more than 150 young graduates in various fields were hired for their first job opportunity. All this under the care of 14 implemented occupational safety programs.

In order to absorb the enormity of the works, OEC built a large support infrastructure to accommodate the members consisting of accommodation, sports complex, medical center, cine-theatre, bank agency, supermarket, drugstore, gymnasiums and even a beauty salon. At the time peak, construction work was underway, over 29,000 meals per day were served in the canteen built in the region located in the provinces of Malanje and Kwanza Norte.

Through the Socio-environmental Program implemented in the communities, the project has carried out replanting, with the purchase of native seedlings and the generation of income for the residents of the neighboring communities. In addition to this initiative, the AH Laúca also recovered 60 hectares of degraded area on the construction site and rescued more than 1,500 animals and 200 species of native plants during the filling of the lake.

OEC has contributed significantly to changing the energy matrix of Angola, a country dependent on oil, with a clean and sustainable energy source. According to the local government, with more availability and energy security, the country is on the road to social and economic development, more attractive to foreign investors and better able to invest in education and job creation.

Marketplace

OEC grew again in 2022, recording revenues of BRL 4.6 billion, 65% higher than the previous period. The company’s efforts, which resulted in positive numbers, occurred at a time when the sector as a whole shrank in Brazil. According to ABDIB (Brazilian Association of Infrastructure and Basic Industries), the volume of construction investment in the country has dropped 31% since 2014. Public investment, on the other hand, has been cut in half. In 2021, investment in infrastructure corresponded to only 1.57% of GDP, the lowest level in the historical series organized by CNI (Brazilian Confederation of Industry), when annual contributions of 4.3% of GDP would be necessary over the next ten years to reduce bottlenecks to economic and social development.