The Consortium Energia Sustentavel do Brasil, which is made up of SUEZ Energy International (50.1%), Eletrosul (20%), Chesf (20%) and Camargo Correa (9.9%) made a bid of 71.4 BRL (i.e. 27.5 Euros) per MWh to sign a 30-year agreement with electric power distributors during the auction held on 19 May in Brasilia. This represents a guaranteed turnover of 9.6B Euros over 30 years, starting from 2013.
Of the electricity to be produced by the plant, 70% has already been pre-sold to electric power distributors through this auction. The remaining will be sold on the free market mainly to major industrial clients.
The total investment in the plant will be about 3.3B Euros. At the end of April, Brazil's national development bank said it was prepared to support up to 75% of the costs to build the scheme, through direct and indirect support.
Commenting on the auction win, Dirk Beeuwsaert, CEO of SUEZ Energy International, said: 'We have a long and extensive experience in developing and building new projects in Brazil and are committed to participate to the growth of the Brazilian energy sector.
'Tractebel Energia, our operational company in Brazil, holds 6.4% of the power generation market of Brazil. Our target is to expand our participation by means of profitable projects with high level of sustainability,' he added. 'The Jirau plant will considerably contribute to secure the energy supply of Brazil, its economic growth and development in the coming years '
The project, which benefits from the full support of the Brazilian government, is in line with SUEZ' sustainable development strategy. The preliminary environmental license for Jirau was issued by IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) in May 2007. The project company will now start working on the installation license taking into account that the plant should start-up as of January 2013.
Jirau is located on the Rio Madeira, in the State of Rondonia, in the North of Brazil, a region where economic development started more than 150 years ago with rubber production.
The run-of-river plant is the second project from the 6450MW Rio Madeira complex to be auctioned. The other project is the 3150MW Santo Antonio project, which was won last year by the Maderia Energia consortium led by Furnas and Odebrecht.
