Pando Montelirio

completed

The Pando Monte Lirio project (“the Project”) is a hydropower development that plans to use the water of the Chiriqui Viejo River (CVR) in the Chiriqui Province in Western Panama. The project considers the construction of two run-of-river power schemes with an aggregate capacity of approximately 84 MW split in 32 MW at Pando powerhouse and 52 MW at Monte Lirio powerhouse.Pando is in the upper part of the CVR catchment area (@ 184 km2). The main dam of the project would be located about 4 km downstream and west from the city of Volcan. The development includes the construction of a 28 m high dam, 150 m long at the crest and 90 meters long at its foundation, that will create a daily regulation reservoir with a total capacity of 900,000 m3, a useful volume of 440,000 m3 with an average storage of 8 hours and covering an area of 180,000 m2 , a tunnel of 3.0 m in diameter and 5.1 km length, a 2.1 km long penstock and diameters of 2.4 to 1.9 meters; a 60 m high oscillation tank and a powerhouse with 32 MW of installed capacity split in two units. The dam will have water-regulating equipment including ecological flow release valve and an overflow fixed-crest spillway structure. While the Pando dam will have storage for sediment transport from the upper basin for an estimated period of not more than 5 years, it will also have a sluiceway structure for removing sediment that may collect in the vicinity of the power intake. Gross head of the scheme is estimated at 280 m.Monte Lirio would be immediately downstream of Pando with a catchment area of approximately 275 km2. This development includes a 15 m high by 46 m long dam, total capacity of 90,000 m3, and a total surface area of approximately 1,500 m2, a tunnel with a 3.2 m diameter and 8.2 km length; a 65.5 m high oscillation tank, penstock of 2.69 km long and diameters of 2.8 to 2.2 m, and a powerhouse with 52 MW of installed capacity split in two units. Gross head of the scheme is estimated at 314 m. Additionally, the Project also involves the construction of a 19 km of 230 Kv TL from the plant to an interconnection substation with the Central American Interconnection System (“SIEPAC”).The project is being developed by Electron Investment, S.A. (the “Company” or EISA), a SPV formed by Spanish and Panamanian investors.