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Rurelec has a 50 per cent stake in Energia del Sur S.A. (“EdS”), which owns and operates, via a British Virgin Islands holding company, a 136 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power plant in Patagonia.
The EdS power plant is situated in Comodoro Rivadavia in Argentina’s Chubut province, an area of national economic importance for its oil and gas reserves. Given its windy location, that area has also attracted investment in sustainable wind power. Due to the present lack of connection of the Comodoro Rivadavia region to the main 500kV power transmission lines running through Argentina, the power output of the EdS plan is dominated by local consumption.
The plant consists of two 38 MW (nominal) gas turbines operating in combined cycle as described in our Innovation & Technology section and one 60 MW (nominal) steam turbine.
The output of the EdS plant is sold to CAMMESA (Wholesale Electricity Market Administrative Company), which administers and regulates the Argentinean electricity market on behalf of the Secretariat of Energy. The contracted steam turbine output (43.7 MW) is sold to CAMMESA under a power purchase agreement (PPA) and the output of the two gas turbines also sold through CAMMESA to the Spot market.
Rurelec owns Central Illapa S.A. (“Central Illapa”), a Chilean project company which will develop a 250 MW open cycle gas fired peaking plant in Mejillones, one of the key power hubs on the SING (Norte Grande Interconnected System) system of the Chilean power grid.
Following the receipt of environmental approval for the Central Illapa plant using Siemens 701 DU turbines, Rurelec acquired two fully refurbished turbines from IPSA Group PLC in June 2013.
Rurelec is seeking to complete the development of its project in Chile or sell its interests in it.