About us

Tractionel, which becomes Tractebel, is the heir of Compagnie Mutuelle des Tramways. The alliance of Compagnie Générale pour l’Éclairage et le Chauffage par le Gaz created in 1862, Société Générale des Chemins de Fer Économiques (1880) and Société Générale Belge d’Entreprises Électriques (1895), will give birth to Tractebel in 1929.

Coyne et Bellier is established by André Coyne in 1947 as Engineering Consultancy André Coyne et Jean Bellier (ACJB). André Coyne is a renowned and reputed French civil engineer who has designed 70 dams in 14 countries, of which the Kariba Dam on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border and the Daniel-Johnson Dam in Quebec, to name a few examples. ACJB joins Tractionel in 1976, which merges with Electrabel later on. The company has undertaken around 600 dam projects in over 70 countries worldwide, 90 hydropower plants with a total potential capacity of over 70,000 MW, the civil design of the nuclear island of 60 nuclear power plants and other large infrastructure projects such as waterways, railways, underground structures and special buildings.

Tractebel traces its activities in Brazil back to the establishment of LEME Engenharia, in 1965. The majority of the existing Brazilian hydropower plants has been planned, designed or built under the supervision of the company’s specialists. Besides being a key player for hydro projects, LEME Engenharia has designed and studied more than 80 extra-high voltage substations and 25,000 km in transmission lines, among them the recent Madeira Transmission Line (± 600 kV / 2,375 km) and the Belo Monte Transmission Line (± 800 kV / 2,092 km). Water infrastructure is another key sector for the company. A remarkable project which counted on the expertise of its specialists was the macro-drainage of the UNA Basin for the expansion of the water supply system of the city of Belém, in the north of the country, benefiting around 2 million inhabitants. LEME Engenharia was acquired by Tractebel in 2000 and it is today one of the most important engineering consultancy companies in Latin America for the energy, water and infrastructure markets.

Tractebel is the shareholder of International Marine and Dredging Consultants (IMDC), which was founded in Belgium in 1982. For almost three decades the company has been acquiring vast experience through water related studies such as flood risk assessment, hydraulic modelling, coastal protection, sedimentation risks, dredging engineering, blue energy, river training works, inland navigation, port infrastructures and offshore installations.

In 1995, Tractebel reinforced its participation in Belgium's infrastructure sector with the foundation of Technum from the merge of several smaller Flemish agencies. Some important projects such as the Antwerp Mobility Master Plan, the Brussels’ EU Parliament Buildings and the Albert II Dock in the Port of Zeebrugge counted on the expertise of Technum, which was rebranded to Tractebel in 2016.

At the helm of the Energy Transition, Tractebel acquires RED, an award-winning company specialising in low energy building design, in January 2023. Since its foundation in 2004, RED has delivered over 200 data centre project designs, many of them achieving new energy benchmarks. Headquartered in London and with international hubs in Dubai and Singapore, RED benefits from its Global Design Centre located in Manila in developing leading-edge software models for energy efficiency, Building Information Modelling (BIM), engineering calculations and drawings quicker and more efficiently than traditional models allow.