va tech hydro in india - ANDRITZ Vertical volute pumps

ENERGY GLOBE AWARD FOR
RIO AMOYA PROJECT IN COLOMBIA
In an Oscar-style award nomination
for sustainable energy projects
(Energy Globe Award) held
on 12 November 2003 at the
Design Center Linz, Austria, the
Rio Amoya hydropower project in
Colombia carried away the first
prize in the water category.
The Amoya River project is located
in Colombia and is supported by the
World Bank and the UN. The hydroelectric
run-off river power plant will
have an installed capacity of 80 MW
and an annual energy production of
568 GWh. The plant will considerably
help to reduce CO2 emissions.
The flora and fauna of the
Las Hermosas national park and
the Paramo plateau will be protected
through the use of clean
hydropower. The project is implemented
in cooperation with the
local community and includes the
promotion of eco-tourism and
micro-enterprises, programmes to
protect the biodiversity of the basin
and health, education, agriculture
and fisheries programmes. The integrative
approach, which distinguishes
this project very positively
from projects oriented exclusively
on the exploitation of waterpower
potential, is exemplary to all future
hydropower projects in similar
6
CUSTOMER FORUM
areas. For this project VA TECH
HYDRO is to supply the entire
electromechanical package. The
customer is HIDROGER.
Gabriel Jaime Ortega is co-founder
and technical director of Medellinbased
GENERADORA UNION. The
Rio Amoya hydropower project in
the Colombian Andes was developed
under his leadership. VA TECH
HYDRO asked the winner of
the Energy Globe Award for an
interview:
What does this award mean to
you?
This award is the recognition of six
years of hard work. We have
realised that the sustainability of
projects is of the utmost importance
for our future. It does not suffice if a
project simply serves the general
progress of a country. For this very
reason it is not only an encouragement
but has speeded up a process,
which is to benefit the overall project
with respect to the remaining
tasks of finalising financing up to
the start of construction and afterwards
during the construction
phase itself. However, this award
also goes to the local population, in
particular the farmers, who never
Gabriel Jaime Ortega,
winner of the Energy Globe Award
ceased to believe in the feasibility of
their project and supported it
accordingly during this lengthy and
costly process.
How did this project come about?
In 1995, ISAGEN, one of Colombia’s
major state-owned power utilities,
and Generadora Union chose Rio
Amoya from a number of projects.
Over the following years construction,
cost and feasibility studies
were completed. As a result of its
privatisation ISAGEN withdrew from
the project in 2000. Generadora
Union decided to go forward on its