Construction has started on the 261MW Dardanelos hydro power plant in Mato Grosso state, Brazil, which joins two others being built by Neoenergia - Corumba III and Baguari.
The Brazilian energy developer and distributor said the investment budget is forecast at US$390M for the Dardanelos plant, which is to have five generation units – four 59MW units and a 29MW unit. Commissioning of the units is scheduled over January-August 2010
Neoenergia is building Dardanelos as majority partner in the Aripuana consortium, which also includes Centrais Eletricas do Norte do Brasil (Eletronorte) and Companhia Hidro Eletric do Sao Francisco (Chesf), both of which are subsidiaries of Eletrobras and hold the other 49% of the equity.
A year ago, Neoenergia also bought a 60% stake in Corumba III scheme. The plant will be built on the river Corumba, near Luziania in Goias state in central Brazil, and have an installed capacity of 93.6MW. The project budget is US$162M, river diversion was carried out in May and commissioning is scheduled for 2008.
Partners in the project, holding the remaining 40%, are energy utilities Companhia Energetica de Brasilia (Ceb) and Companhia Energetica de Goias (Celg), and also Strata Construcoes e Concessionarias S/A and Energ Power Ltda.
Also in May, construction work started on the 140MW Baguari plant on the river Doce in Minas Gerias state, and which is expected to be commissioned in 2009. The investment budget is US$270M, and the project is being built by Odebrecht, voith-siemens and Engevix.
Partners in the project are Neoenergia, Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais (Cemig) and Furnas Centrais Eletricas (Furnas), which hold stakes of 51%, 34% and 15%, respectively