Edelca restarts Guri turbine

Venezuelan power company Edelca has restarted operations of its number 13 turbine in the second machine room at its 10,000MW Guri hydro plant, after replacing parts to improve the turbine's efficiency, Edelca said in a statement. The work is part of a general plant modernization designed to increase the efficiency of the plant's 20 turbines and produce an additional 1,730GWh a year. Guri has two machine rooms each with 10 turbines . Edelca plans to modernize two turbines a year so that the remaining eight turbines can continue producing power. Over 50 foreign companies are involved in the project. Edelca also plans to upgrade its Macagua and Caruachi hydro plants in a program that began in 2001 and is scheduled for completion by 2009. Guri is 100km upstream from the confluence of the Caroni and Orinoco rivers. It is the second largest hydro plant in the world after the Itaipu plant in Brasil-Paraguay, with capacity to produce 50,000GWh a year. Edelca is a subsidiary of Venezuela's state heavy industry holding CVG.