Collahuasi awarded NCRE bid to Solarpack
03-Jul-2012 Collahuasi – News
25 MW Photovoltaic power plant in Chile:
Collahuasi awarded NCRE bid to Solarpack
– Thought to be most important photovoltaic power generator in Chile and one of largest in Southern Cone, its construction will be started at the end of 2012 in Tarapacá Region. Once the plant is operating it will satisfy about 13% of current Collahuasi requirements during day time
– The contract will forfend emission of 43,500 CO2 tons/year and will reduce electrical supply costs for the mining company
Compañìa Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi has informed the results of their call for bids for NCRE supply. The long-term contract resulting from the call for bids the mining company started by mid 2011 doubled the power originally quoted and finally set it at 60,000 MWh/year supply to be started during the fourth quarter of 2013 once the plant is built.
Solarpack, a Spanish company, was awarded with the contract and consequently it will construct two solar energy plants in Pozo Almonte which have already been granted the corresponding Environmental Resolutions (RCA 000042 dated May 6, 2011, and 000062 of July 4, 2011 respectively).
Besides, as a result of this call for bids, Collahuasi gets preferent right to purchase power from other project Solarpack is developing in Tarapacá Region in Chile.
Likewise, both companies have agreed to mutually collaborate to install a power plant for Research and Development (R & D) in Collahuasi Port fields close to Patache, First Region of Tarapacá, in order to test different photovoltaic cutting-edge technologies under real-life conditions.
On this regard, Roberto Darouiche and Miguel Angel Durán, heads of the new Collahuasi organization have stated that “we are pleased to announce this NCRE trailblazer bid in Chile which results prove the commitment Collahuasi has with sustainable development. Considering the extensive solar radiation resources the North regions have, we are certain this step Collahuasi is taking will make it possible to think in developing a renewable energy source that provides efficient and complementary support for sustainable growth of our copper mining operation in the First Region”
On the other side, Pablo Burgos, General Director of Solarpack, asserted that “our whole team is very satisfied with the confidence Collahuasi has set on us for this important project in Chile which implies a new boost for our international development in building and managing photovoltaic solar parks. This is how our company consolidates its commitment with this country that is undoubtedly fostering development of non-conventional renewable energies”.
Bid process
Current legislation ruling electricity impose the power generation companies to inject power produced from NCRE sources for all new contracts as well as for any contract amended after August 31, 2007 and whose generation source is based on fossil fuels. Thus, and in order to secure NCRE injection at competitive prices, Collahuasi decided to call for an international bid so as to at least have available a 30,000 MWh/year block with the possibility to step-up.
During pre-qualification stage 94 Chile-based companies or consortia expressed their interest in participating. From the 94 interested companies, 39 were qualified and invited to quote by Collahuasi. Finally, 10 companies or consortia submitted their offers.
Offers included attractive and competitive long-term prices which will enable Collahuasi to make significant savings in energy costs.
Because of the competitive level of the offers submitted, the awarding criterion considered CSR factors as relevant matter. Thus, power generation plant location in 1st Region with Solarpack investing in that Region and recruiting local employees were factors positively evaluated by Collahuasi.
Likewise, Carlos Finat, Energy Manager for Collahuasi, added that “we appreciate the participation of all companies and consortia whose efforts and professional level made it particularly difficult for us to make a decision. We believe that this is the time for CDEC-SING authorities and agents to work together and with certain sense of rush in order to ascertain accomplishment of the conditions for maximizing NCRE inclusion in SING without jeopardizing the interconnected system stability and safety”.
