Portuguese consultant Coba has won design work on two new hydropower projects at home – the approximate doubling of capacity at Alqueva and also construction of the Ribeiradio scheme.
Coba was awarded the Alqueva design contract by Energias de Portugal (EDP), which itself secured the scheme under a 35-year deal with the project owner Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infra-estruturas do Alqueva (EDIA).
EDP plans to increase the capacity of the Alqueva plant to 520MW, said Coba in a statement.
Under the terms of the deal, which also involves EDP adding capacity at the 10MW Pedrogao scheme, the power utility will pay EDIA an upfront sum of US$283M plus annual payments of US$18M. It plans to invest US$226M to increase the installed capacities of the schemes.
A joint venture of EDP and Eviva (Martifer) also recently was awarded the concession for the Ribeiradio scheme by the national water authority (Inag). Coba assisted in the design work for the tender to win the concession and is now undertaking the full design and environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the project, which involves construction of a main concrete dam and a subsidiary concrete dam, each with surface power plants.