Brief:

Fialay International – FZCO was the chosen construction consultancy by GRD SERVICES FZCO to provide Management services for the Tendering Process & Tender Assessment in order to oversee the management of a competitive tender process, of the resulting winning Tender Documents bid for the Construction of Caculo Cabaça Hydropower Station.

We were tasked with reviewing tender documents, the scope of works, checking the feasibility for qualification, and financial criteria, and preparing presentations, risk matrix, and information to top management to get approval for bidding. We carried out site investigation, prepared logistics plan, Bulk materials sourcing nearby, and attended pre-bid meetings & sought clarifications from the client.

We ensured to get through the contract terms and conditions, liquidity damages, performance guarantee, milestones, bank guarantee requirements, payment terms and special conditions, taxes-, and duties. We identified risks and opportunities in the proposal pricing in order to mitigate inherent risk at the tender submission stage.

We coordinated internal departments for the Preparation of project construction plans & Schedules, staff, Manpower & Equipment deployments, Organization charts, method statements, and infrastructure requirements, we prepare tender review information in order to ensure methodology, pricing, and margin contingency are adequately adhered to.

We handled the preparation of technical & commercial bids as per the tender requirements. Preparing Rate Analysis with logical risk factor pricing.

 Key project:

The Caculo Cabaça hydropower project is a 2,172MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric facility under construction in the Kwanza Norte Province of Angola.

The project is being developed by Angola’s Ministry of Energy and Water (MINEA) with a total estimated investment of approximately £3.47bn ($4.53bn).

The construction works on the project were started in August 2017 with commissioning expected by 2024.

The Caculo Cabaça hydropower project comprises a 103m-high concrete dam with a crest length of 553m, an underground powerhouse equipped with four 530MW turbine-generator units, as well as a 52MW ecological power plant located adjacent to the dam.

The storage capacity of the dam is approximately 440 million cubic meters (mcm). The dam’s hydraulic structure includes a controlled frontal spillway with five radial gates with a design flow rate of 10.02m3/s. The bottom outlet of the structure is formed by two-lined tunnels.

The central body of the dam comprises two saddle dams, closed by concrete weirs, 525m and 192m long, and 36m and 4m wide respectively.

The water intake structure for the plant will be located approximately 2.4km upstream of the dam’s left abutment. The underground powerhouse will receive the water supply through four 300m-long concrete-lined headrace tunnels with an inner diameter of 9m each.

The powerhouse cavern will measure 221m-long, 26.5m-wide, and 68m-high. The turbines inside the powerhouse will operate with a design water flow rate of 1100m3/s, while the water operating head between the reservoir and the power plant is 215m. The water from the powerhouse will be released back to the river through two 16m-diameter, and approximately 5.1km-long concrete-lined tailrace tunnels.

The 52MW ecological power plant will also have its water intake, headrace tunnel, and tailwater canal facilities. Its turbine will be designed to operate at a water flow rate of 60m3/s.

Results:

The Fialay International – FZCO team successfully oversaw the completion and subsequent submission of the winning Tender Documents bid.