EPSA Starts Commercial Operation of 20-Megawatt Alto Tulua Hydro Power Plant in Colombia

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On May 25, Colombian utility Empresa de Energia del Pacifico S.A. E.S.P (EPSA) (Yumbo, Colombia) inaugurated the 20-megawatt (MW) Alto Tulua run-of-the-river hydro power plant, located on the Tulua River in the Valle del Cauca Department.

The facility consists of two 10-MW, horizontal-axis, Francis hydro turbines supplied by Andritz Hydro (Graz, Austria). The turbines are fed pressured water through a 5-kilometer-long penstock, and the energy produced is injected into the local 34.5-kilovolt (kV) transmission line. The construction of the power plant started in 2009, and the project required an investment of nearly $65 million.

Thanks to its low environmental impact and the fact that it will allow savings of 40,062 tons per year of CO2 emissions, this project was qualified as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) by the United Nations.

With this project, EPSA reached 960 MW of installed base distributed between 14 hydro power plants located in the departments of Valle del Cauca and Tolima. Of these, the most important are the 132-MW Calima hydro power plant, located on the Bravo River; the 365-MW Alto Anchicaya hydro plant that uses the waters of Anchicaya and Verde Rivers; and the 285-MW Salvajina hydro plant on the Cauca River. In addition, the company has a long-term contract for 140 MW in the Termovalle combined-cycle power plant located in the Yumbo industrial park.

The Alto Tulua project is part of the EPSA's expansion plan that includes the 20-MW Amaime hydro plant inaugurated in January 2011; the 55-MW Miel II project (aborted due to differences between EPSA and its partner GENSA); and the 19.9-MW Bajo Tulua and 55-MW Cucuana hydro projects. The last two projects are in construction phases and are expected to become operational between the end of 2012 and 2013.

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