Another two Ituango turbines will be finished in July

Public Companies of Medellín (EPM) reported that the civil works process for the Hidroituango power plant will be completed in July. It should be remembered that these two turbines, 3 and 4 of the first phase, have reliability charge commitments. For this reason, to avoid fines and sanctions, these structures must generate power to the system before November 30 of this year.

In accordance with Jorge Andrés Carrillo, manager of the company, some bulkheads are needed to be able to complete the works. These are necessary to prevent the flow of water from the reservoir to the conduction channels, since some concrete “plugs” that were placed during the 2018 contingency must be removed.

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“The contractor change had no effect on the schedule; on the contrary, everything related to civil works and assembly will be ready in two monthsCarrillo explained.

These bulkheads are being manufactured in Croatia and EPM has already received confirmation from the contractors that they will be ready. The company has already contracted two Antonov planes that will bring the 80-ton parts to Medellín and from there to the construction site. “It is perhaps the largest logistical deployment that there has been for an infrastructure project that has taken place in the country”, assured Carrillo.

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After the annual meeting with investors, The leader of the public company also reported that it will seek to increase the nominal generation capacity of the machines.

Currently, each turbine of the 8 that the plant will have in total can generate 300 megawatts of energy. However, Carrillo explained that they showed that they could increase this generation by 10%. This means that each turbine would generate 330 megawatts and when the first stage is completed with its four turbines, 1,320 megawatts will be generated.

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“For it to be generated, an optimal water level is required. But in the evaluation of the first two units we saw that they were behaving so well that speaking with the manufacturer we decided that we are going to make a modification to increase the power of the unitsCarrillo explained.

At the moment, this process could not be carried out, since the plug for the right diversion tunnel of the plant is missing. This is expected to be finished before November 30, so this increase could be had after this.

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This means that in a case of El Niño phenomenonwhich is forecast for the second half of the year and the beginning of 2024, the plant would be able to respond.

Besides this, Carrillo affirmed that due to the nature of the plant, even in an intense summer they could generate.

“There are two rivers in Colombia that resist a Niño: the Magdalena and the Cauca. Hidroituango behaves like a central edge of water, almost everything that arrives can be generated. There’s no need to dam”, he explained.

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This is why Carrillo assured that In all scenarios, even the most complex ones, the four units can keep operating.

To maintain the reliability of the system, EPM also started the operation of a liquid and gas combined cycle thermal power plant, with a capacity of 300 megawatts.

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Regarding the operation of the turbines from 5 to 8, Carrillo stressed that he will not be delayed by launching the tender for these works a second time. He pointed out that 12 companies bought the rights to participate in the competitive process, of which 11 have already made the mandatory visit to the plant. The idea is that work on the second phase of the plant can begin on October 1.

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