Entidad Binacional Yacyreta (EBY) is accepting public tenders for work to add a 270-MW powerhouse to the existing 3.2-GW Yacyreta project.
Yacyreta is a multipurpose dam on the Parana River between Argentina and Paraguay. The powerhouse, located on the Main Arm of the river, contains 20 Kaplan turbine-generator units. On the Ana Cua Arm of the river, a dam with 16 radial gates was built.
EBY plans to install three vertical Kaplan turbine-generator units on the Ana Cua Arm. According to Gabino Fernandex, deputy head of the technical department of EBY, 1,500 cubic meters of water per second go through the spillway gates, with about $70 million lost per year.
The total cost to add the three units is estimated at US$610 million, and with an added total of 270 MW of capacity, the work will boost electricity production at Yacyreta by 10%.
Offers for the civil works and certain electromechanical parts are due April 16, according to BNamericas, and offers for the generation electromechanical supply are due May 2.
Yacyreta began operating in 1994. Electricity generated is supplied to the Argentina Interconnection System and the Paraguayan National Interconnected System.
EGY is in the process of rehabilitating the units at Yacyreta. As of the end of 2017, 12 of the units were repaired. Once the rehabilitation work is completed, it is estimated the units will have a useful life of 50 years.
EBY reported in early January that the Yacyreta plant registered a generation record in the last month of 2017. Generation in December reached a total of 1,898,305 MWh, compared with the previous record set in December 2016 of 1,891,845 MWh.
This appears to be at least the second attempt to build the Ana Cua project, as HydroWorld reported in September 2011 that EBY was inviting applications for pre-qualification to build the project.
