© GE Renewable Energy / Rubens Fraulini –
São Paulo, Brazil – GE Renewable Energy’s Hydro and Grid Solutions businesses have signed a contract for the technological upgrade of the world’s second largest hydroelectric power station. The major order has a term of 14 years.
The Itaipu hydroelectric power station in the border region of Brazil and Paraguay is undergoing extensive technical modernization after around 40 years of operation. A consortium led by GE Renewable Energy’s hydropower division has now been awarded the contract for the major project.
Period for modernization set at 14 years
GE Renewable Energy, through its Hydro and Grid Solutions businesses, has been awarded a contract to provide a major engineering upgrade to the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant on the Paraguay-Brazil border. Work on the almost 40-year-old facility is expected to take 14 years. The modernization includes the equipment and systems of all 20 power plant units as well as the improvement of the hydroelectric power plant’s measurement, protection, control, regulation and monitoring systems
In addition to the modernization of the 20 power plant units, GE’s scope of order includes the supply of medium-voltage control cabinets, energy management systems, automation technology and the supply of protection, control and monitoring systems for the power plant units, the substation with gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and the existing 500 kV transmission lines and two new compact GIS substations to increase the reliability of the power station’s auxiliary electrical services. . GE is supported by the Paraguayan partner companies CIE and Tecnoedil, which are responsible for the assembly and the delivery of general materials.
“It is an honor and an obligation for us to participate in this, Itaipu’s largest technological upgrade project since its inception. Because of its importance in bringing clean energy to the people of Paraguay and Brazil, Itaipu is key to avoiding future energy crises and ensuring more affordable.” Energy for generations to come,” said Pascal Radue, CEO and President of GE Renewable Energy Hydro Solutions.
Modernization prevents problems with spare parts – the system is brought up to the latest technical standard
The modernization of the power plant is the result of extensive planning that began in the early 2000s and has gone through several phases. According to the company, the investment was necessary because many systems are still analogue or technologically outdated. In some cases the manufacturer no longer exists, making it impossible to replace parts. “When we upgrade the plant technologically, the spare parts problem disappears. The big advantage is that we bring the plant to the latest state of the art and thus improve the efficiency of the operation and maintenance processes,” says David Krug, Technical Director of Itaipu.
The Itaipu Binacional hydroelectric power station on the Paraná River was commissioned in 1984. Overall, Itaipu Binacional covers an average of 8.4 percent of Brazil’s and 85.6 percent of Paraguay’s electricity consumption. Each of the 20 power plant blocks has the capacity to supply a city with 1.8 million inhabitants. The dam reaches a height of almost 200 meters and is eight kilometers long. With an installed capacity of 14,000 megawatts (MW) (14 GW), Itaipu is currently the second largest hydroelectric power plant in the world after the Three Gorges power plant in China. After the commissioning of the Chinese hydroelectric power plant Baihetan on the Yangtze River with a total output of 16,000 MW, Itaipu will then rank third among the world’s largest hydroelectric power plants.
Source: IWR Online
© IWR, 2022
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