Geraoeste

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The Brazilian company Geraoeste Usinas Eletricas do Oeste, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eletroeste – Centrais Eletricas Ltda, was granted authorizations to build three small hydro power plants located in the state of Mato Grosso (51.1 MW in total capacity). The 30-year contracts were signed with the regulatory agency ANEEL over the years since November 2000. Geraoeste would control the projects through its subsidiaries Nhandu Energia S.A. and Usinas do Oeste S.A. The first contract signed was for the Nhandu and Rochedo Plants, which were set to have a capacity of 22 MW (municipality of Novo Mundo). PCH Sao Lourenco (former Ze Fernando) located in the municipality of Jucimeira also belongs to Geraoeste. With a total capacity of 29.1 MW, it began construction in 2007 and became operational in March 2009. The Nhandu and Rochedo power plants demanded a total investment of US$ 46 million (BRL 100.2 million), which was financed with a loan from Banco do Amazonas amounting to US$ 27.6 million (BRL 60.1 million) granted in October 2006. The Sao Lourenco power plant demanded investments of US$ 62.2 million (BRL 135.7 million). An EPC contract was signed with Odebrecht in July 2006 amounting to US$ 46.3 million (BRL 101 million). Financial closure was achieved in July 2006, when Geraoeste signed another contract with the state-owned Banco da Amazonia for a US$ 35.9 million (BRL 78.3 million) loan. All PCH´s have signed power purchase agreements with the state-owned company Eletrobras for 20 years through the Brazilian Federal program PROINFA (incentive program for alternative power generating companies).