Furnas’ Energy Restrictions Postpone Power Plant Outages in Brazil

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Brazil’s Mascarenhas de Morais Hydroelectric Power Plant has postponed the start date of planned maintenance outages because of energy restrictions imposed by Furnas Centrais Eletricas S.A. (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Mascarenhas (476 megawatts) often takes two of its 10 generating units offline simultaneously. Contrary to this, Mascarenhas authorities were forced to reschedule the outages and to reduce the number of them.

The main reason for Furnas’ restrictions is that modernization work is underway at other Furnas hydroelectric power plants in the Brazilian Mina Gerais State: UHE Luiz Carlos Barreto de Carvalho (1,050 MW) and UHE Furnas (1,216 MW).

The upgrade at UHE Luiz Carlos Barreto de Carvalho is being carried out by the consortium specially created for this project, Consorcio Fornecedor Luis Carlos Barreto de Carvalho. Currently, work is underway on UG 1 (175 MW Voith Turbine), which will be completed in November.

On the other hand, Furnas Hydroelectric Plant has already completed the modernization of UG 6 (152 Mw Nohab Unit), and the modernization of the remaining seven units is estimated to be completed in 2010. In both cases, the modernization includes the turbine and generator’s total recuperation and the plant’s digitization in order to increase the equipments reliability and the operational security.

Mascarenhas de Morais has already completed its unit’s modernization. Some units have been entirely upgraded and others have just been partly improved. The 10 units have been operating for more than 30 years and consequently had been reducing their energy production before the renewal took place, which extended their utility life for some more decades.

Furnas Centrais Eletricas S.A. has 11 hydroelectric power plants and two thermal plants in Brazil, totalizing 9,910 MW and 7,971 MW respectively.

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