Technology, design and engineering under strict environmental fulfillment
To develop this project, we will take advantage of the water from the rivers
Changuinola and Calubre, which will allow the generation of a nominal power of
223 MW and a production of average electrical energy of approximately 1,046
GWh/year. The country’s installed capacity currently increases to 1,534 MW and
the production of the total annual energy is 6,000 GWh. Therefore, Changuinola I
will improve the installed capacity by 15% and production by 18%.
The design includes a dam in the river Changuinola, with a maximum height of
99.2 meters and a length of crest of approximately 600 meters of rolled
compacted concrete, known for its initials in English RCC (Rolled Compacted
Concrete Dam) and which design is under the responsibility of the English
company of engineering and construction of dams of Malcolm Dunstan & Associates,
who successfully developed the dams of Ghatghar in India and Longtan in China,
among others. It’s the first time that this technology, that has more than 25
years of use on 359 dams in 47 countries of the world, will be used in Panama.
Among its main advantages that stand out we find its security for the
infrastructure, its efficiency in costs and the quickness to establish its
construction, depending on the area’s weather conditions.
As consequence of the strong relief found in the project’s area, Changuinola I
will form a small reservoir of daily regulation for generation that will cover
approximately 1,394 hectares, from which approximately 190 hectares corresponded
to the area taken by the river and its attributes. This small regulation
reservoir will have a working volume (amount of water available for generation)
of 130 million cubic meters of water, which is equivalent to having stored
available generation of 6.81 days. Additionally, the project will have a power
density of 16 W/m2 (generated watts x each square meter on the reservoir), which
is higher than 4 W/m2, the accepted minimum on Clean Development Mechanism
projects (CDM). This reservoir will have very little lateral development, which
means that the reservoir would take a small surface, maintaining itself confined
to a narrow river valley , that will represent more than 1% of the protected
forest BBPS. A pressure tunnel covered with concrete, of approximately 4,200
meters of length will carry 221 cubic meters per second of water until a five
level superficial power house, where the generation units will be kept. These
consist on two Francis turbines, two generators and two breathing tubes with
floodgates.
There will be an ecological flow of 13.4 cubic meters per second on the dam’s
site and will pass by a mini hydro that will be constructed to produce 9.66
additional megawatts. There will also be an unload channel of approximately 200
meters of length, from the power house to the river Changuinola. Finally, the
water used to generate energy is brought back to the river without pollution.
The energy will be delivered to the national transmission system of ETESA
through a transmission line of 230 kilowatts, which starts in a substation with
two transformers and a distribution area.
The project’s total execution represents an investment of approximately 563
million dollars and the estimated start date for the commercial operation of the
plant Changuinola I is on the first quarter of 2011.
Project’s description
| Power Station Changuinola I |
| Installed capacity: |
223 Megawatts |
| Approximate investment: |
563 million dollars |
| Average generation: |
1,046.3 GWh per year |
| Works’ start date: |
October 25th, 2007 |
| Construction period: |
42 months |
| Start of commercial operation: |
First quarter of 2011 |
| Dam: |
99.2 m height |
| Reservoir level: |
165 meters above sea level |
| Unload level: |
55 meters above sea level |
| Spillway: |
11,040 m3/s |
| Power house: |
106.4 MW x 2 Francis turbine-generator |
| Ecological flow: |
13.4 m3 /s, 9.66 MW |
|
