Lumitrans

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The Brazilian government, under the power regulator Aneel, awarded a greenfield build, own, and operate contract for a transmission line in Brazil’s Campos Novos area in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The project company, Lumitrans, will transmit power through the concessional period of 30 years. The line will connect the Machadinho and Campos Novos areas. The Lumitrans project was one of 7 transmission concessions awarded by Aneel in 2003-2004; all lines cover 1,787 km and will include investments of US$614 million. Aneel was prompted to release the bids after Brazil’s National Privatization Council (CND) issued a resolution in June 2003 calling for 7 groups of transmission concessions. The greenfield build, own, and operate contract was awarded by Aneel in November 2004. The contract was signed by the winning consortium comprising two subsidiaries of Consorcio Lumitrans – Luminar Montagem Electricas Ltda (70 percent) and Luminar Comercio Industria Ltda (30 percent). The consortium was selected on the basis of offering the lowest transmission tariff. Total project financing of the US$22.7 million project was provided by the sponsors in November 2004 with the support of BNDES. The Lumitrans project was expected to start operations 18 months after the contract signing – approximately May 2006. When completed, the transmission line will span 51 km. Operations only commenced in October 2007. In November 2008, state-owned company Cemig acquired 80% of Lumitrans The transaction was worth BRL 32,4 million.