Elecnorte Guajira Transmission Lines

completed

IFC is considering up to US$20million A Loan and mobilization provided under IFC’s Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program of up to US$70million to finance the construction, operation, and maintenance of total 138km of 110kV regional transmission lines in the department of La Guajira, Colombia (the “Project”). The project will be developed by Elecnorte S.A.S  ESP (“Elecnorte” or the “Company”), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by (i) Elecnorte Andino S.L.  (“Elecnorte Andino”) with 68.67% ownership; Fondo Ashmore Andino II (“Ashmore” or the “Fund”), with 31.28% ownership, and by Morelco S.A.S., DV Ingenieria Enterprise Management Services S.A.S, (together, the “Technical Partners” or “Consorcio CDEM”), with a combined 0.05% ownership. The duration of the concession, awarded by the Colombian Energy Planning National Authority (UPME) to the company in 2016, is 25 years. The project involves the construction of two 110kV transmission lines, one of about 76.5 km length between Riohacha and Maicao and another of about 62 km length between Riohacha and Cuestecitas, and the refurbishment of three existing substations at Riohacha, Maicao, and Cuestecitas. There will be no expansion of the footprint of the substations.  The design, construction, operations and maintenance of the transmission line meets the requirement of the relevant national technical regulation (RETIE - Reglamento Técnico de Instalaciones Eléctricas). The lines will be double-circuit, although initially the wires will be installed to operate only one circuit, and will allow to close a transmission line ring, connecting the three substations of Cuestecitas, Riohacha and Maicao. There will be 321 steel towers (2.4-2.5 towers/km with an average space of about 400 meters between towers) and 50 steel poles, the latter mainly installed in the 5.5 km stretch of the line crossing the city of Maicao before reaching the substation. The construction footprint of each tower site and each pole site will be 225 square meters (15x15 meters) and 36 square meters (6x6 meters) respectively. The permanent footprint of the towers and poles will range from 25 to 9 square meters.  Tower height will range from about 45 and 52 meters, while poles will be about 30 meters high.   To comply with the technical regulation, the Right-of-Way (RoW) for the transmission lines is 20-meter wide (i.e., 10 meters each side of the line) where towers will be installed, and 15 meter wide (i.e., 7.5 meters each side of the line) where poles will be installed (i.e.. urban areas). To minimize the footprint of the project, there will only be 16 temporary work areas (50x20 meters) which will be opened for laying out the wires. Therefore, each wire laying section will be about 10 km in length. The project will require a 1.5 hectare (ha) temporary storage area, which has been identified and is located along Highway No. 49 in proximity of Riohacha. The project will use existing access roads during construction which will require only limited improvements, and no new accesses will be opened. The proposed transmission lines will cross an area of dry and very dry shrub and forest vegetation communities. The landscape of the region is mostly coastal plains, with the exception of some hilly sections mostly located in the sector close to Cuestecitas (Albania municipality). The Riohacha – Maicao transmission line crosses the Rancheria River, the main river in the region, close to the line’s end point at Riohacha. The project will clear a total of about 21.2 hectares of land, including the permanent footprint of the tower sites. Clearing of arboreal vegetation, where necessary, will be carried out along a 3-meter centerline strip within the RoW, and drones will also be used to install the wires with minimal impact. All construction materials will be sourced from existing and licensed suppliers in the region and no new quarries or borrow pits will be needed.   La Guajira is a region with a significant presence of indigenous communities and the project has defined its route with due consideration of the settlements in addition to minimize interferences with protected areas, as discussed in detail in this Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS). About 97 percent of the line’s RoW between Riohacha and Maicao will closely follow the Highway No. 90, with limited realignments to avoid settlements and other infrastructure along the highway. About 40 percent of RoW of the line between Riohacha and Cuestecitas will stay within 500 meters of the main roads (specifically Highway No. 49 from Riohacha to La Florida), although the section from La Florida to Cuestecitas will stay on the ridge of the hills north of the main road.  The company has signed the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) and the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) contracts with the Technical Partners. Morelco S.A.S., a construction and engineering Colombian company with 40 years of experience, holds 85% share of the EPC Contract and 70% share of the O&M Contract. The EPC contract is full back to back with the obligations under the concession (including environmental licensing). The O&M contract has been signed for 10 years. The construction timeline is tight. According to the conditions of the concession contract, the project should start operations on December 31, 2019. The company expects to start the construction works in February 2019 with a construction period of nine months.