Ruacana hydroelectric power station
| Ruacana hydroelectric power station | ||
|---|---|---|
| location | ||
|
||
| Coordinates | 17 ° 23 '40 " S , 14 ° 13' 9" E | |
| country | Namibia | |
| place | Ruacana | |
| Waters | Kunene | |
| Height upstream | 134 m above sea level NN | |
| power plant | ||
| owner | NamPower | |
| operator | NamPower | |
| Start of planning | 1970s | |
| Start of operation | 1978 | |
| technology | ||
| Turbines | 4th | |
| Generators | 4th | |
| Others | ||
| was standing | 2017-05-29 | |
The Ruacana Hydro Power Station ( English Ruacana Hydro Power Station or Ruacana Power Station ) is the largest power plant in Namibia . Originally built in the 1970s, the power plant has been renovated and expanded since the 2010s. Today (as of May 2017) it has a capacity of 347 megawatts .
history
The hydropower plant was built according to an agreement between South Africa and Portugal as part of the Cunene project . First, in 1975, a reservoir was built for the flood overflow about 80 kilometers south of the Angolan city of Nova Lisboa on the Kunene . Today this is of economic importance for Angola, which operates its own power plants and commercial fishing on the reservoir .
In a second phase, another dam was built about 65 kilometers upstream from Ruacana near Calueque . To date (as of May 2017) the dam is only about 70 percent completed after Angola stopped construction in 1976. In the third construction phase, a distribution weir about one kilometer from Ruacana was built by 1978 . The fourth phase comprised the construction of the actual power plant with three turbines of 80 MW each on the Namibian side of the river. In the final fifth construction phase, a 330 kV power line was built over 670 kilometers .
In 2012 the power plant was expanded by 90 MW and the existing turbines expanded to 257 MW.
See also
Web links
- Official power plant site (English)