Utility Energias de Portugal (EDP) signed contracts June 30 with two groups for construction of the 170-MW Baixo Sabor pumped-storage project and the 260-MW Alqueva 2 pumped-storage project in Portugal.
170-MW Baixo Sabor pumped-storage
EDP awarded a 257 million euro (US$407.8 million) contract to a consortium of Bento Pedroso Construcoes SA and LENA Engenharia e Construcoes SA to build Baixo Sabor on the Sabor River in northern Portugal.
The utility took bids in January for civil construction of Baixo Sabor after the European Commission withdrew its environmental opposition to the 354 million euro (US$484 million) project. Bids are due September 1 to supply generating equipment. (HNN 6/6/08)
Baixo Sabor is to include a 123-meter-tall double arch dam, a 45-meter-tall gravity dam, and two powerhouses, one containing two reversible turbine-generators totaling 140 MW and another containing two reversible units totaling 30 MW. It is expected to double water storage capacity in the Douro Basin and begin generating electricity in September 2013.
260-MW Alqueva 2 pumped-storage
EDP awarded a 50 million euro (US$79.3 million) contract to a consortium of Zagope Construcoes e Engenharia SA and Sociedade de Construcoes Soares da Costa SA to build Alqueva 2, a pumped-storage expansion project of the 259.2-MW Alqueva hydroelectric project on Portugal’s Guadiana River.
The utility took bids to build the new Alqueva powerhouse in April and took equipment bids in May. (HNN 4/23/08)
EDP announced June 19 that Portugal’s competition authority cleared it to operate Alqueva and the 10-MW Pedrogao project, also on the Guadiana. (HNN 6/23/08) EDP agreed in October 2007 to pay 636 million euros (US$907.4 million) for a concession to expand the projects and operate them for 35 years.
The pumped-storage addition to the multipurpose Alqueva project includes a water intake, tunnels, a new powerhouse containing two reversible turbine-generators, transformers, a substation and an interconnection. The project is expected to go on line in December 2011.
EDP has estimated it would invest 156 million euros (US$222.5 million) to expand Alqueva and Pedrogao.
