A consortium led by GE Hydro Solutions has signed a contract to upgrade the 14GW Itaipu hydropower plant located on the Paraná River between Brazil and Paraguay.
The Itaipu plant is the second largest in the world in terms of installed capacity, according to GE, and the technological upgrade will take 14 years to complete.
The upgrade will see the modernisation of the 20 power generating units, as well as the supply of medium voltage cubicles, energy management systems and automation technology as well as the delivery of protection, control and supervision systems for the generating units, GIS substation and the existing 500 kV transmission lines, in addition to two new compact GIS substations.
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Pascal Radue, CEO and president of GE Renewable Energy Hydro Solutions, said, “…Because of its relevance in providing clean energy to the people of Paraguay and Brazil, Itaipu is key to avoiding future energy crises and ensuring affordable energy for generations to come. Likewise, we look forward to working with GE Grid Solutions to optimise the plant’s operations further enabling Itaipu Binacional to make the most of its assets and resources and meet the demand for clean energy in both countries.”
The upgrade will be led by GE Renewable Energy’s Hydro and Grid Solutions businesses and supported by Paraguayan partner companies CIE and Tecnoedil (responsible for the assembly and supply of general materials, respectively).
Itaipu’s executive technical director, David Krug, highlights that the upgrade is important due to the age of the assets. “If we upgrade the plant technologically, the problem of spare parts is eliminated…the big advantage is this – we are upgrading the plant to a new state of the art facility and, in doing so, improving the efficiency of the operation and maintenance processes.”
In total, Itaipu Binacional covers an average 8.4% of Brazilian and 85.6% of Paraguayan electricity consumption.
The single plant has produced more than 2.8 billion GWh since 1984, according to GE.
