After the letter sent by the general director of the CCC Ituango Consortium —in charge of the civil works of Hidroituango— in which he indicated that there would be no power generation at the plant by July 26, EPM stepped in, leaving more doubts than certainties.
William Giraldo Jiménez, Vice President of Power Generation Projects at EPM and in charge of the development of Hidroituango, indicated that they concentrate all their efforts on maintaining the start-up date of one of the generation units. Of course, Giraldo also indicated that the date is not final and is constantly being reviewed, because it is possible that there is some unforeseen event that generates delays, taking into account the magnitude of the work.
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Who defines schedule?
Despite the fact that Giraldo indicated that he was unaware of the content of the letter that the CCC Ituango consortium sent him on February 21, in dialogue with EL COLOMBIANO he indicated that although a contractor like this could express his views, who defines the work schedule semester is EPM. In addition, he specified that this same schedule is delivered to the control entities, which also audit it. Of course, he clarified that he did not remember if by December 2021 the consortium was in favor or against the date of July 26.
“We make bi-annual schedules that are put together from the information given by all the 80 contractors, and not only from what the civil works constructor does. In the last schedule that we closed on December 31, 2021, it gave us a date (of generation) around the end of July and that is why we put that date of 26. But obviously we will have to review it, “he added.
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The vice president also indicated that EPM is betting that the time of uncertainty in construction will be favorable —that is, that the building processes will be completed earlier than expected—, which would make it possible to offset what the consortium is currently carrying out on other work fronts. However, there is no absolute certainty about this either.
“This is a mega-project that can have both positive and negative uncertainty. The road must be done and along the way we are going to look at what we can do and what we can adjust, but always thinking of November 30, 2022 (the date that requires EPM to have two units in service generating 300 megawatts of energy , as ordered by CREC resolution 194 of 2020). We cannot go past that date because there would be quite onerous fines against EPM. I’m not sure of the number but it would be about $2.1 billion,” he said.
Time trial setup?
Giraldo also clarified that the electromechanical components of the work are not assembled by the CCC Ituango consortium. However, with his explanation of what is done after delivery by the Consortium, Giraldo implied that CCC must deliver its works in record time if it wants to meet the July deadline, something unlikely to fulfill according to what was written by Saraiva in his letter (See X-RAY).
“The consortium finishes the concrete, and then we practically go in for five or six months to install equipment and put it into service. So, although the two units advance practically together, we, I go back and repeat, We are going to evaluate to find out what (percentage of construction) both units are at,” he added.
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There is no acceleration of works
Being aware that one of the reasons for the last emergency of Hidroituango in 2018 was the acceleration of the works (which kept the dam in suspense for about three years), Giraldo ruled out that a situation similar to the one that caused the crisis is developing in it.
“Here we are not going to run to put the project into service. There is a guarantee that I have given to the organization and the community to start generating with the units but avoiding risks to the population, to the technical team and avoiding economic risks to the company and energy risks to the country. We are not running to meet a date.”
Current status of the dam
The vice president indicated that the current works include generation units 1 to 4, especially in the assembly of electromechanical equipment of units 1 and 2 developed where units 5 and 6 will be located. Once assembled they will be transferred to their respective slabs. The control system for both units is also being assembled. Today there are already boards installed in the generation 1 unit.
Additionally, work is being done on the north beacon of units 1 to 4. It is also expected to install the discharge gates of the four machines. and the one filled with a hole that in discharge 2 would be finished in May.
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