POWERCHINA Sets Overseas Hydropower Station a Platform for Technical Talent Training

With impounding successfully completed by the end of 2020, the Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Station in Zambia, is ready to start operation.

Power Construction Corporation of China (POWERCHINA) was responsible for the project's construction, which took nearly five years.

With a 130-meter high dam and a total installed capacity of 750 megawatts, the station is expected to increase power supply in Zambia by 38 percent, contributing to its economic and social development.

The first large hydropower station invested and developed in Zambia in the past 40 years, it is also used as a platform for technical talent cultivation.

In July 2017, POWERCHINA independently funded and built a training school to train local technical talents in the infrastructure construction field.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu attended the school’s launch ceremony.

On several occasions, he has stressed the importance of the hydropower station and pointed out that the Chinese enterprise shouldered social responsibilities which not only provided jobs for local people but also cultivated many technical talents for the country.

One of the school's first female trainees majored in auto repair and is now a part specialist at the repair workshop of the hydropower station.

She explained that a quick repair of vehicles ensures a continuous operation of the dam construction. Her responsibility for fast repairing of the needed components is crucial.

Various kinds of machinery is used in the project and all kinds of mechanical problems might occur anytime. Figuring out solutions to the failed parts is a valuable experience for a technician, she added.

POWERCHINA's training school was included in Zambia's national education system in May 2019. Fang Zhi, president of the school, said that cooperation between the school and enterprises will deepen in the future and build the school into a high-skilled talent training base.

Nearly 200 of its graduates are currently working for the hydropower station.

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)