Brazil's IBAMA Issues License for 1,440-Megawatt Marimbondo Hydropower Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Latin America (Córdoba, Argentina)--The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) recently issued the operation license for the 1,440-megawatt (MW) Marimbondo hydropower station. The license was granted to Eletrobras Furnas (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), allowing for commercial operation until June 17, 2021, provided that all the requirements in the license are fulfilled.

The Marimbondo plant is located on Grande River, near the cities of Fronteira and Icém, on the state boundary of Minas Gerais and São Paulo. The operation license conferred last week puts an end to a several years of permitting processes to fix the situation at five power stations that were running without proper authorizations. Furnas' plants other plants that were in the same situation are Itumbiara (2,080 MW), Funil (216 MW), Porto Colômbia (319 MW), and Luiz Carlos Barreto de Carvalho (1,048 MW).

Marimbondo began commercial operations in October 1975, after four years of construction. It consists of eight 180-MW Francis turbines that were manufactured by a joint venture led by Voith AG (Heidenheim, Germany). Electrical generators were made by Swedish manufacturer Asea AB, which later merged with Swiss company Brown Boveri to form ABB Limited (NYSE:ABB) (Zurich, Switzerland).

The facility has 26 13.8/525-kilovolt (kV) transformers that were provided by Tusa (Jundiaí, Brazil), now a Siemens (NYSE:SI) company, making a total operational capacity of 1,520 megavolt-amperes (MVA). Furnas was the first utility company in Latin America to build and operate 500-kV transmission lines for the Marimbondo project, which reached full operational capacity in January 1977.

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