New 220-kilovolt high-tension lines are needed to connect the three regional power networks that cover the country’s electricity needs

As economic development accelerates, so does the demand for electricity to power it. Angola’s Empresa Naciona de Electricidade (ENE, the National Power Company) is rebuilding some of the country’s most crucial infrastructure, to meet the growing electrical needs of the Angolan industrial and service sectors. ENE’s mission doesn’t stop at Angola’s borders, however, and the company is pursuing ambitious plans to develop the electricity market throughout southern Africa.

As the Angolan national energy utility, ENE manages electricity generation, transmission, and delivery nationwide – except for Luanda, where distribution is handled by a separate enterprise. While there are multiple small electricity systems operating in Angola, three main power transmission networks cover the country: the northern system, supplying Luanda and Bengo, Malanje, Kwanza Norte and Kwanza Sul provinces; the center system, supplying Benguela and Huambo; and the southern system supplying Huila and Namibe. Three hydroelectric stations, at Cambambe, Biópio, and Matala, supply two-thirds of Angola's electricity generating capacity, with the remainder generated by local, mostly diesel-fueled, thermal generators.

During the struggle for independence and the civil war that followed, components of the electricity system fell victim to sabotage, attack, or a lack of maintenance. A 2004 assessment determined that nearly half of Angola’s transmission and distribution network was in need of repair or replacement. “Almost everything is a priority, because of the direct destruction caused by the war and because of indirect factors like a lack of maintenance” says ENE Chairman Dr. Eduardo Nelumba. “The overload of the remaining infrastructure is also a problem. The equipment has to serve a much greater number of customers, causing a lot of wear and tear.” The lack of a reliable electrical system has had environmental consequences for Angola as well, increasing consumer reliance on biomass and wood fuels and inviting deforestation.

To answer the great present demand for electricity, and lay the groundwork to meet future needs, ENE is pressing forward with projects to create new generating capacity. The enormous Capanda dam and generating station will, when complete, incorporate four 130-megawatt turbines at its site nearly 200 miles east of Luanda on the Kwanza River. With the participation of Brazilian and Russian contractors, the Capanda project is doubling Angola’s hydroelectric capacity and bringing 520 megawatts of electricity online. Other hydroelectric projects, to rehabilitate the Mabubas, Matala, Lamaum, and Biópio dams, will bring these more modest facilities back online and help promote development in the provinces by supplying electricity to smaller cities.

Eduardo Nelumba, President of the Board of Directors- ENE

Generation, however, is only one piece of the electrical system, and new 220-kilovolt high-tension lines are needed to connect the three regional power networks get the power to customers. Dr. Nelumba believes that the challenge is not just to add new capacity but to rebuild Angola’s electrical system from the ground up. “We are working to build a new line to transport all this energy and make it available to supply the huge demand for electricity in Luanda. There are other constraints in the distribution network as well, so we need to invest in production, transportation and distribution.”

ENE has partnered with China National Machinery and Equipment (CMEC) to rebuild both high-voltage lines for long-distance transmission and medium-voltage lines for local distribution, connecting the hydroelectric generating station at Cambambe with new substations in Luanda and the provincial cities of Viana and Cazenga. After only two short years of the EME-CMEC effort, a modern, national electrical grid has started to take shape.

The move from an informal economy to a modern financial system will help ENE recover costs and encourage greater participation from international partners. “We have improved from a collection rate of around 41 percent in 2004 to about 65 percent in 2006”, Dr. Nelumba says, but balancing a good return with a price that Angolans can afford is a delicate task. “We have to make the tariff attractive enough to attract investors, to cover their operational costs and investments. On the other hand, we have to be on the consumer’s side and meet their needs in order to convince them to pay for consumption.” ENE is installing electrical meters for customers, and is experimenting with a prepaid system in Cuende province to simplify payment and increase compliance.

Angola’s image as an arid and flat country conceals the true reality of its hydroelectric potential: with plentiful rainfall, high mountains, and large rivers, Angola has the third-largest water resources in Africa. Exploiting even part of the country’s 50,000 megawatt hydroelectric capacity — more power than is currently generated in all of South Africa — could supply energy to the larger Southern African Development Community (SADC) through the proposed Southern African Power Pool. Dr. Nelumba believes that the Angolan electricity market “can easily expand to the SADC region, or even central Africa. Energy interconnection deepens Angola’s integration with the region, and provides a greater security in supply.”

Dr. Nelumba understands electricity as a necessary precondition for other economic activities to even begin in Angola, saying that “you can’t even consider industrialization and development without energy. The vision I have is of a reconstructed Angola that ensures the well-being of its people, and by this I mean access to electrical energy, to health, to education, to housing, and to drinking water.”