Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDE) expects final design of the 800-MW Cachuela Esperanza hydroelectric project to be complete in the second half of 2009.
An official of the state power company told Business News Americas that Canadian contractor TECSULT-AECOM submitted a first report on the project, in northeastern Bolivia's Beni Department. Although TECSULT-AECOM recommended economic feasibility studies be performed, no decision has been made to do so.
ENDE signed a contract in 2008 for the TECSULT-AECOM study, which is expected to identify other possible projects in the area of Cachuela Esperanza on the Beni River upstream from where it joins the Mamore River to form the Madeira River that flows into Brazil. (HNN 9/2/08)
The ENDE official said requests for proposals to build the project would depend on financing. Options include offering the project for an engineering-procurement-construction contract or to a joint venture.
TECSULT-AECOM also is to study possible cumulative environmental effects of Cachuela Esperanza and two big Brazilian projects being built on the Madeira, 3,300-MW Jirau and 3,150-MW Santo Antonio. (HNN 2/20/09)
