Huambo, ANGOLA, August 28 - The central Huambo province has a new thermal power station that will boost with a further 50 megawatts the supply of electricity to the provincial capital and the municipality of Caála.,

The structure was inaugurated this Tuesday by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.

The start-up of the Belém thermal power plant, 11 kilometers off Huambo city, is expected to benefit more than 100,000 residents of the cities of Huambo and Caála, as well as to strengthen the public network in the streets and old and new neighborhoods.

The power station has two turbines each with a capacity to generate 25 megawatts and was budgeted at 325 million US dollars.

After the ribbon cutting and unlatching of the plaque, the President of the Republic, accompanied by the Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges, by the governor João Baptista Kussumua, among other personalities, toured the unloading area, workshop, control room and the administrative building.

Huambo province currently has two sources of electricity production (the Ngove hydroelectric plant and  Benfica thermal power station) that produce between 20 and 30 megawatts, insufficient to meet the growing demand.

With the installation of the two new US-made turbines that arrived at the plant in late March, the province now has 70-80 megawatts, a power that guarantees 90% coverage of the city of Huambo, including areas that are currently deprived of electricity supply and their extension to new neighborhoods.

President João Lourenço, who is on a two-day working visit to Huambo province, this morning chaired the eighth regular session of the Council of Ministers and, on Wednesday, presides over the second meeting of the Local Governance Council.