The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a loan of US$87.8M for the Baba project in Ecuador, which is being built to collect and divert water to an underutilised hydro plant.
Once the Baba project has been completed, the additional water will help boost the total output at the neighbouring 213MW Marcel Laniado de Wind (MLW) hydro plant to about one fifth of the country’s electricity imports. The additional flow should enable the plant to produce a further 388GWh per year.
The Baba dam is to be built at the confluence of the Babi and Toachi rivers, and is to take two years to build. The scheme also involves construction of an 8km long diversion to convey impounded water to the Daule Peripa reservoir and then be fed to the MLW plant. At present, the plant is only using almost 40% of its installed capacity.
Odebrecht is the key company behind the US$195.2M Baba project, which is being developed as a public-private partnership scheme. The company proposed the approach to produce additional electricity output in a move that has reduced the scale of land acquisition and resettlement needs.
As a PPP scheme, the Baba dam is being built on build, operate and maintain basis.