Preparations are advancing for the installation of the first turbine, and despatch in the near future of the second unit, for the Porce III plant under construction in Colombia.
Impsa is supplying four Francis turbines to the 844MW (4 x 211MW) plant, which is being developed by Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) and will be its biggest facility. The plant is located on the Porce river near Antioquia City in the north of the country, in Los Andes region.
The units are to commissioned starting after mid-2010 to early 2011, and when completed the plant is to generate 4300GWh of electricity annually. It will benefit from the regulation capacity of Porce II and Riogrande II reservoirs as well as those of the Troneras and Miraflores, which are part of the Guadalupe system.
Impsa’s contract includes design, production and supply of the turbines as well as related hydro mechanical parts, onsite supervision, testing and training. It was awarded a US$37M contract for the package in late 2006.
The main construction work on the project is being undertaken by a joint venture of Construcoes e Comercio Camargo with Colombian firms Conconcreto and Coninsa, which started work on site in late 2005.
Key features of the project include a CFRD dam, 12.3km long by 10.2m wide headrace tunnel and an underground powerhouse. Earlier plans had the installed capacity of the plant at 688MW (4 x 172MW) and 660MW, respectively, to generate 3106GWh/yr.