The first financing contract of the Development Fund of the Amazon (FDA), signed Monday, August 28, is going to help build a thermoelectric plant that will produce 81,250 kilowatts of energy in Manaus, capital city of the Brazilian Northern state of Amazonas.
"This represents 10% of the energy consumed in Manaus, including residential, commercial and industrial use," explained the president of the Energy Generating Plant of Amazonas (Gera), Lauro Fiúza.
Gera is carrying out the construction work in the Thermoelectric Plant of Ponta Negra, which has a total cost of US$ 108.9 million. Out of this value, only US$ 24.6 million are resources from the company itself – US$ 21.1 million is from the Constitutional Fund of the North (FNO) and US$ 63.2 million from the FDA.
"Construction works started in December. The plant is ready, the equipment have arrived from Italy. We are in the assembly phase," informed Fiúza.
"In 60 days, we expect to be operating already, with heavy oil. When the Coari-Manaus gas pipe is ready (the forecast by the federal government is for march 2008) we should use natural gas. We already have a contract with Manaus Energia for this."