Bolivian Firm Invests $50 Million in 220-Megawatt Plant Expansion

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Bolivia's Empresa Guaracachi S.A. (EGSA) will launch a bidding next month to expand the 253-megawatt (MW) Santa Cruz thermal plant and to switch two of its nine units to combined-cycle plants.

EGSA will invest $50 million to convert two General Electric (NYSE:GE ) (GE) Frame 6FA 71-MW gas turbines to combined-cycle mode by adding two heat recovery steam generators and one 80-MW Siemens steam turbine. Construction kick-off is scheduled for the beginning of 2008, with completion expected in May 2009.

The projects will take advantage of the heat produced at the moment of electrical-energy generation by the GCH-9 and GCH-10 turbines, which can reach a temperature of 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat will be used to generate water vapor that will go to the new steam turbine.

The combined cycle will obtain carbon credits issued by the Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations.

The Santa Cruz thermal plant has three GE, four AEG, one Hitachi and one EGT gas turbines. Unit GCH-9, which will be converted to combined-cycle mode, and Unit GCH-10 are under a maintenance outage for a combustion-chamber inspection. The remaining GE turbines will have their respective combustion chambers inspected at the beginning of 2008. The AEG turbine's combustion chambers will be examined in the first quarter of 2009.

In January 2006, Britain's Rurelec PLC bought 100% of Guaracachi America Incorporated's stock shares. EGSA, the biggest generation company in the country, operates three plants: Santa Cruz Guaracachi, Aranjuez and Karachipampa in Santa Cruz, Sucre and Potosi, respectively.

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