El Salvador utility Comision Ejecutiva Hidroelectrica del Rio Lempa (CEL) is conducting environmental and logistical studies to advance 704-MW El Tigre Dam, proposed for construction on the border with Honduras.
Business News Americas quoted a CEL source who said officials of both countries planned to meet in May in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to continue discussions on the project. In 1998, the two governments agreed to set aside historic disputes on behalf of developing El Tigre.
A CEL source told BNamericas the studies include El Tigre’s flood control and irrigation benefits. Both governments are collaborating on the studies.
The estimated US$1.5 billion project would create a 69-square-kilometer reservoir fed by the Lempa and Torola Rivers. El Salvador initiated hydraulic studies in the 1950s of the Lempa River in the area where El Tigre is sited.
Those studies identified the civil works and electromechanical equipment required for El Tigre. Original plans included a primary concrete-faced, rockfill dam 390 meters long and 100 meters tall. It would be supported by three rockfill dikes: 240 meters long and 50 meters tall; 950 meters long and 37 meters tall; and 190 meters long and 12 meters tall.
The first stage of the project would include an underground powerhouse containing four vertical Francis turbine-generators with combined capacity of 357.2 MW. In the second stage, four more Francis units would boost capacity to 704 MW.
For information, contact Jose Oscar Medina II, Executive Director, Comision Ejecutiva Hidroelectrica del Rio Lempa, 9a. Calle Poniento 15a, Avenida Norte, Centro de Gobierno, San Salvador, El Salvador; (503) 2216000; Fax: (503) 2216235; E-mail: [email protected]; Internet: www.cel.gob.sv.
