BNDES board approves US$479mn hydro financing

The board of Brazil's national development bank BNDES has approved three different loans totaling 1.4bn reais (US$479mn) for the development of five hydroelectric projects with a combined installed capacity of 4,640MW, the bank said in a statement Monday. The projects are the doubling of the Tucurui hydroelectric project in Para state, three projects at Itiquira in Mato Grosso state, and the Rio das Antas complex in Rio Grande do Sul. Total investment in the projects is 4.8bn reais. At Tucurui, BNDES will loan 931mn reais - 24% of the 3.8bn real total costs - to federally-owned generator Eletronorte to increase capacity of the 4,245MW plant to 8,370MW. Work on the project started in July 1998: the first two new turbines have already started operations and the third is scheduled to start up before the end of this year. Three new turbines are programmed to start up in 2004, three more in 2005, and the last two in 2006. BNDES will provide 436mn reais, 66.2% of total cost of the 658mn real Rio das Antas project, which is made up of the Montes Claros, Castro Alves and 14 de Julho projects and totals 360MW. Construction of Montes Claros started in April 2002, Castro Alves is scheduled to start this month, with 14 de Julho construction slated for March 2004. The Ceran consortium (Companhia Energetica Rio das Antas) of distributor CPFL (65%), distributor CEEE (30%) and engineering company Desenvix (5%) is developing Rio das Antas. In Mato Grosso state, Itiquira Energetica will use an 85mn real loan for the 362.6mn real, 156MW Itiquira project, which includes not only the hydroelectric plant but also a substation and 100km of transmission line. Engineering company Inepar Energia owns 49.9% of the Itiquira project, while the Triunfo Agropecuaria JV, owned on a 50-50 basis by Inepar Energia and Construtora Triunfo, owns the remaining 50.1%.