REN's Speed-E will bring energy to rural communities in Angola

A rural community in the province of Cuanza Norte, Angola, will be supplied with electricity in the coming months, thanks to the installation of a Speed-E micro substation, patented by REN, in the area.

The first stone was laid next to a very high voltage tower near the community of Quiangombe on the 7th of this month, in a ceremony presided over by the Governor of Cuanza Norte, João Diogo Gaspar.
The project is the result of cooperation between REN and RNT – Angola's National Transmission Grid. The president of RNT, Rui Gourgel, believes that the work could be completed in about six months and that its practical effects will help the governments of the various provinces to decide to finance similar initiatives.

RNT has developed a programme called RETEC - Community Electrification Network, and has already identified around a dozen rural communities that could benefit from access to electricity thanks to the Speed E system.

Quiangombe is just under 300 kilometres from Luanda and has 175 homes, a school, a health centre and an administrative post. The available energy will allow each home to have lighting and a socket to charge a mobile phone. The school will be able to have a computer connected to the internet and the health centre will have a refrigerator to store medicines. The electrification of the administrative post could save residents many trips to deal with bureaucratic issues, and the authorities plan to create a community centre to install a television and thus alleviate the isolation of the population.

Governor João Gaspar said he believes that electricity will attract more people to the area and facilitate the emergence of micro-entrepreneurship projects in agriculture.

Speed-E is a system, internationally patented by REN, which allows 220-volt consumption to be supplied directly from a Very High Voltage line, within a radius of up to one kilometre from the High or Very High Voltage tower where the system is installed.