BEIJING: Power company China Three Gorges Corp yesterday agreed to pay 13.8 billion reais (US$3.7 billion) for the rights to operate two large hydropower plants in Brazil, the country’s electricity regulator Aneel said.
Three Gorges will take control of the Jupia and Ilha Solteira dams, currently operated by Brazil’s Cesp, which was willing to keep the installations but acknowledged before an auction for the rights that it had no financing for it.
Jupia and Ilha Solteira have a combined installed capacity of almost 5,000 megawatts. They were the largest hydropower installations being offered by the government in the auction for existing plants, which is still going on at local exchange BMFBovespa.
Brazil is selling rights to operation 29 hydropower plants whose licenses have or are about to expire. Companies will be granted contracts to operate the installations for 30 years.
Three Gorges will be entitled to receive annual revenue of 2.4 billion reais during the contract’s duration.
