Concession Auction for Brazil's Jirau Hydropower Plant Scheduled for May 19

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Brazil's electricity regulatory agency Aneel will hold a concession auction for the 3.3 gigawatt (GW) Jirau power plant on May 19, 2008. Two consortiums will bid for the building and operation of the hydroelectric plant: Energia Sustentavel and Madeira. The same groups bid on the 3.15 GW San Antonio hydropower plant, which Madeira won in December 2007. For more information, view related December 29, 1007, article - Odebrecht, Furnas to Construct Hydroelectric Project in Brazil.

The Energia Sustentavel Consortium, led by France's Suez (Paris) with Eletrosul (Santa Catarina, Brazil), Chesf (Pernambuco, Brazil) and the engineering company Camargo Correa, will hold an auction on May 16, 2008, to sell Jirau's hydroelectricity. The group will use the results of this auction as a strategy to evaluate how much to offer during the concession auction.

The Madeira Consortium is formed by the federal power company Furnas (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), the engineering companies Odebrecht (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Andrade Gutierrez (Minas Gerais, Brazil), FIP Amazonia Energia Fund and one of the most important electric energy utilities Cemig (NYSE:CIG) (Minas Gerais, Brazil).

The plant would be equipped with 44 75-megawatt (MW) Kaplan turbines and start operation in 2012. The station, along with the San Antonio plant, is part of the 6,450 MW Madeira River Complex, a project with an investment cost of $9.8 billion. The complex, located in the state of Rondonia, is considered essential by the Brazilian government in order to help the country meet power demand by 2011.

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