A committee of authorities headed by the President Evo Morales and the minister of Energy, Rafael Alarcón, arrived – the second week of August – to Yaguacua, province of Gran Chaco, to inspect the progress of work of the combined thermoelectric cycle plant of the south and to announce the entrance of three new Siemens turbines (two SGT-800 to gas and a ST-400 to steam) that will add 320 megawatts (MW) to the 160 MW of power it already has.

For more than an hour, the commission walked through each of the environments and verified the civil and operational work performed by the firm that won the work, TSK and that has as a subcontractor company to ESE.

Evo Morales precisó, durante una conferencia de prensa instalada frente a las turbinas, que con la potencia que generen las tres termoeléctricas en el país –Warnes, Entre Ríos y del Sur- se podrá suplir la demanda nacional de energía eléctrica mientras que, el excedente, será pensando para la exportación a mercados de países vecinos.

Eduardo Paz, president of ENDE Corporation, explained that there are already advances in the negotiations to export energy to Argentina Brazil, Paraguay and Peru. He said that the thermoelectric plant of the South has at least a 60% advance in civil works and during the first quarter of 2019, they will be already carred out the tests to inject the 320 MW of power to the National Interconnected System (SIN).

Each of the turbines that arrived at Yacuiba, have an individual weight of 87 tons and a capacity to generate 50 megawatts (MW). The staff who moved this equipment, according to a statement from Ende, departed in early June from the Swedish port of Norrköping to Chile, from where they traveled 1.8000 km to reach Yacuiba.

ABOUT THE PLANT

The Southern Thermoelectric Plant is designed to achieve an installed capacity of approximately 480 megawatts (MW) through a combined cycle (gas and steam) technology. At present, the plant already has four Siemens SGT-800 turbines with an individual generating capacity of 40 megawatts (MW) which add up 160 MW. It has also built a 230 kW substation and consumes an average of 40 million cubic feet (MMPCD) of natural gas.