Brazil’s Itaiupu Binacional receives IHA training in hydropower sustainability

FOZ DO IGUACU, Brazil 4/12/12 (PennWell) — Employees of Brazilian hydropower producer Itaipu Binacional have completed training in the International Hydropower Association’s Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol.

The association says 22 members of Itaipu Binacional took part in the week-long course, which was facilitated by IHA sustainability specialists Douglas Smith and Simon Howard.

“The protocol, a tool to guide sustainability in the sector, provides a common language around which issues of sustainability can be discussed and understood,” Smith says. “Training with multiple stakeholders like this contributes significantly to the process.”

Itaipu Binacional is jointly owned and operated by Brazil and Paraguay and operates the Itaipu facility, which has 20 hydroelectric generating units that combine for a total of 14,000 MW of installed power.

The training will help pave the way for an official protocol assessment due to take place later this year, IHA says.

IHA says representatives from Eletrobras, the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, Cepel Energy Research and ISAGEN were also present at the training.

The Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, adopted by IHA in November 2010, has since served as a “comprehensive tool to assess the sustainability of hydropower projects globally” by providing a “rigorous, evidence-based assessment of between 19-23 relevant sustainability topics”.

Since then, the protocol has been adopted by 11 international organizations and companies — most recently, Electricite de France.