2 May 2011
Maputo — Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the company that operates the dam in the central Mozambican province of Tete, has recently completed the renovation of the first floodgate, from a group eight, in the dam.
This is part of a comprehensive investment program to modernize that important infrastructure for power generation, reports the daily paper “Noticias”.
The head of Engineering Services and Maintenance at HCB, Moises Machava, explained that this is a huge operation, which includes replacement of a number of elements in advanced state of aging that impact negatively on power quality.
According to Machava, the management of HCB also plans to renovate another two floodgates before the end of 2011.
Currently, the floodgates at HCB dam are operating with obsolete equipment installed over 30 years ago, which pose a threat to the security of the dam.
As a consequence, the floodgates are facing serious problems of leakage and corrosion, with some operating and monitoring equipment completely worn out and obsolete.
The renovation project of the equipment ensuring structural safety of the dam, which is also used to manage the lake and discharges of water downstream of the Zambezi River, started in August 2010 and budgeted at 15 million euros. Once completed in 2013, it is expected that the eight floodgates will be fully operational for another 30 odd years.
“We are concerned, the floodgates are operating with problems of leakage, corrosion of the metal parts, faulty electrical and hydraulic systems which, in some cases, are compounded by difficulties of acquiring spare parts in the market, with the system monitoring the percentage of opening the floodgates inoperative for quite sometime”, said Machava.
That is one of the reasons the Board of Director decided to give full priority to the project just after the reversion of the HCB dam from Portuguese to Mozambican management.
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