May 2003 ISSUE TONGBAI Page 4/5 COMPACT HYDRO in ...

CAPIM BRANCO II
Three VA TECH HYDRO Kaplan Turbines for a New Hydropower Station in Brazil
The twin project Capim Branco I&II,
located in the western part of Minas
Gerais, is part of Brazils current
power development program, which
covers the construction of several
medium sized power stations
through a well defined privatization
process. VA TECH HYDRO has signed
a contract for supplying, installing
and testing turbines and generators
for Capim Branco II as well as
control systems and electrical auxiliary
systems for both power stations.
Despite current economic problems,
the economy in Latin America´s largest
country continues to perform in a relatively
stable way compared to most
other states in the region. Consequently,
Brazil remains a target market for
VA TECH HYDRO, the newly awarded
contract for Capim Branco I&II represents
an important step forward. The
customer consortium is lead by Companhia
Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), an
important mining company in Minas
Gerais. Co-owners are the federal
state´s local electric utility CEMIG as
well as C.A. Paneiras and Companhia
Mineira de Metais. CVRD is already well
known to us as lead customer of the
8
CAPIM BRANCO
KEY PROJECTS
Candonga project which currently is
under execution with VA TECH HYDRO
as supplier of the complete electromechanical
equipment. The project has
gone through a public auction in November
2000 based on previously performed
basic studies. CVRD turned out
to be the successful bidder for the concession.
Two consortia were competing
for the Engineer Procure Construct
(EPC) contract, the successful one was
lead by the Brazilian civil company Andrade
Gutierrez, who joined with Odebrecht
and Queiros Galvao. Within the
E&M group, it has been agreed that the
main equipment for Capim Branco I
(three Francis groups) will be supplied
by Voith Siemens and for Capim Branco
II (three vertical Kaplan groups) by
VA TECH HYDRO. During bidding and
optimization, various alternatives have
been studied, comparing different
combinations of Kaplan and Francis
turbines. The overall economic comparison
resulted in the choice of three
vertical Kaplan turbines for Capim
Branco II, while Capim Branco I power
plant remained with the originally
planned Francis units. Further, the originally
planned concept with one common
penstock was replaced by individual
penstocks, saving the huge
trifurcator and the turbine inlet valves.
The EPC contract was signed in October
2002 and put into force in April
2003. The plant is scheduled to gener-
ate power in 2006. VA TECH HYDRO
did model development and internal
testing in their test laboratories specifically
for this project prior to the contract
start. The VA TECH HYDRO project
team consists of team members in the
Sao Paulo, Ravensburg and Vienna offices.
As the scope share is mainly local
with minimized import portion due to
currency reasons, the overall lead is with
the local project manager in Sao Paulo.
Oscar Gonzalez
Phone +49/751 83 3196
oscar.gonzalez@vatew.de
Technical data:
Output: 72 MW
Voltage: 13.8 kV
Head: 48 m
Speed: 163.6 rpm
Runner diameter: 5,000 mm
Stator diameter: 6,800 mm