TermoFortaleza

completed

The government of Brazil (GOB) established the Programa Prioritário de Termeletricidade (PPT Program) in order to incentivize the development of licensed thermal power plants so as to more optimally balance the country’s power generation capacity base. The project is designed to complement the Northeast region’s hydropower-based electricity production by providing natural gas-fired generation capacity. The venture is included in the PPT program.The plant will sell its entire output, under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), to Companhia Energética do Ceará (Coelce), the sole electricity distribution company for the state of Ceará. Cegás, the gas distribution company for the state of Ceará, and Petrobrás, the national oil and gas company, will supply natural gas to the project under 20-year Gas Supply Agreements (GSAs). Mitsui is the selected EPC Contractor. The plant is currently under construction, and is expected to achieve commercial operation by December 2003.The project consists of the development, construction and operation of a 310.7 MW (net) thermal power plant located in the industrial complex near the Port of Pecém, in the municipality of Caucaia, state of Ceará, in the poorest northeastern region of Brazil that was most severely affected by the recent power rationing program.The project is located in the industrial park adjacent to the Port of Pecém, in the municipality of Caucaia, state of Ceará, Brazil. The state of Ceará is promoting the industrial park in Pecém which is expected to include various projects, such as a steel plant, a petrochemical plant, a regasification plant, power plants, and warehouses. Existing industries in the industrial park include a 200 MW simple-cycle gas-based power plant. The project is strategically located at the load center, represented by the industrial park and by the metropolitan region of Fortaleza, one of the fastest growing cities in the northeast Brazil. It is in close proximity to the Guamaré-Pecém gas pipeline, and about 2 kms away from the grid at 230 kV Cauipe substation of CHESF.