Cadafe to complete Pedro Camejo upgrade by Dec

State-owned Venezuelan power utility Cadafe's upgrade of the Pedro Camejo power plant in Carabobo state will be completed in late December 2005, Cadafe said in a PowerPoint presentation obtained by BNamericas. The plant, which started operations in 1978, will see its generation capacity increase to 300MW from 220MW as a result of the upgrade. Cadafe is installing two new 150MW Siemens turbines, purchased at a total cost of US$105mn, which will replace Pedro Camejo's seven old units of 20MW each and one of 80MW. The old turbines ran on diesel or natural gas, but the new ones will be gas-powered only. As a result of the refurbishing, the plant has room to include another 150MW turbine, Cadafe said. The government decided to reinforce the country's thermo generation capacity when a dry spell in 2001 and 2002 caused the Guri reservoir to drop to its lowest level ever. Guri provides about 70% of Venezuela's power. Pedro Camejo will serve the central Venezuelan states of Aragua, Carabobo, Cojedes, Lara and Yaracuy. Over the years, Pedro Camejo's turbines have been shut down for several reasons. In 1987 the main 80MW unit had to be halted because of the high cost of diesel. By 1996 the complex had capacity to generate just 32MW.