Eletrobrás announces 3rd Proinfa reshuffle

Brazil's federal power holding company Eletrobrás has reshuffled for a third time its alternative energy source incentive program Proinfa to comply with a court order, Eletrobrás announced. Further, two investors failed to sign contracts, the company said. A court ordered Eletrobrás to sign a contract with Curuá Energia for the 18.3MW Salto Cururá small-scale hydroelectric dam in the northern state of Pará. Eletrobrás also invited wind power project developer Enerfin do Brasil to sign a contract for the 7.6MW Palmares project in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul and with Eólica Formosa for the 26.2MW Formosa wind project in the northeastern state of Ceará. The reshuffling occurred because neither developers of the 18.3MW Nova Aurora small-scale hydroelectric project in the center-west state of Goiás nor Gamesa with the 21.4MWMW Serra do Antunes project in Rio Grande do Sul signed the Eletrobrás contract. Under Proinfa, Eletrobrás has to sign 20-year power purchase contracts for 3,300MW from three alternative power projects: 1,100MW from small-scale hydroelectric dams, 1,100MW from wind-powered projects and 1,100MW from biomass projects. Gamesa declined to sign the contract with Eletrobrás because it considered that it was not economically feasible to develop only part of the Serra do Antunes project that had been approved with an installed capacity of 98 MW, local press reported. Enerfin's Plamares project has full capacity of 50MW while Curuá's full capacity is 30MW and Formosa's is 104MW.