Laúca Hydroelectric Power Station
Laúca Hydroelectric Power Station is Angola’s largest power plant, with a capacity of about 2,074 MW. It sits on the Kwanza River, near the border of Cuanza Norte and Malanje provinces, about 280 km southeast of Luanda. Construction began in 2012 and the facility opened in December 2020, costing around US$4.3 billion. It is owned by the Angola Ministry of Water and Energy.
The dam is a 132 m tall gravity dam built with roller-compacted concrete and forms a reservoir of 5.48 billion cubic meters, covering 188 km². The spillway can handle about 10,020 cubic meters per second.
Laúca has two power stations: a main plant with six turbines of about 334 MW each (together about 2,004 MW) and an auxiliary plant with a 70 MW turbine, bringing total capacity to about 2,074 MW. The plant typically generates around 8,640 GWh per year, feeding the national grid and supplying energy to millions of customers.
The project created more than 8,000 direct jobs during construction. Initially, Brazil helped fund the project, but a 2016 corruption scandal ended that credit line, so Angola turned to commercial lenders to complete it.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:28 (CET).