Emgesa El Quimbo HPP

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The El Quimbo hydro project was intended as a 400 MW facility located in the Magdalena River Basin, Colombia. The project sponsor and developer, Emgesa S.A., was created specifically to build and operate power projects in Colombia and as of 2011, the company was a subsidiary of Emgasud, the Spanish engineering firm. In 2008 Emgesa S.A. won a tender to build, own and operate the El Quimbo facility that would sell power on the Colombian privatized electricity market. The estimated cost of the project was USD 684 million. By 2011, several milestones for project development had been passed; in 2009, the Colombian environmental ministry approved the project's EIA; in 2010, Italian construction firm Impregilo was awarded the construction contract; and in January 2011, Emgesa successfully completed at USD 400 million bond issue on the local market to partially finance the construction of El Quimbo. The expected construction period for the project was four years, with commissioning in 2014. The project applied for CDM credits in 2011.