$ 124.6 million more to conclude Toachi Pilatón

Ecuadornews:

The Government will contract directly with the Russian company Tyazhmash. In the work, with problems since 2008, another $ 400 million have been invested. 

Today, May 21, the estimated date for the award of the contract that the State will sign for the completion of the Toachi Pilatón hydroelectric project, one of the emblematic works, which has been suspended for two years, is met.

The Government has a budget of 124’613.506,83 dollars ready for the execution of the works, whose physical progress remained at 85%. The amount is added to the nearly $ 400 million invested since 2008 in the construction of the project, which involved, in different periods, three contractors: the Brazilian Odebrecht, the Chinese CWE and the Russian Inter Rao.

For the completion of the work, the public company Corporación Eléctrica del Ecuador (Celec EP) invited only the Russian company Tyazhmash SA It must execute the contract within two years and five months (880 days), in accordance with the specifications established in this process of direct contracting, which began on May 8.

The contractor must be in charge of concluding what concerns the electromechanical and hydromechanical project. This task includes engineering, procurement, manufacturing, supply, transport, assembly, commissioning, technical testing and delivery in perfect operation of three turbogenerators of the Toachi Pilatón project.

These power plants are Sarapullo, Alluriquín, Toachi, as well as the La Palma operation and supervision center.

When it enters into operation, Toachi Pilatón will be able to generate 254 megawatts (MW), according to the Government’s forecasts. The Minister of Energy and Renewable Resources, Carlos Perez, said in a final interview that nine months after the activities were restarted, the Sarapullo plant (849 MW) would go into operation and after 15 months the Alluriquín plant (204 MW).

“Our interest is for this project to start producing, to generate energy for the country,” the minister said.

The company Tyazhmash was a subcontractor of Inter Rao, the previous contractor to which in 2017 it was declared (unilaterally and in advance) the contract it had signed in 2010, for $ 145 million.

Until early 2018, the Government had a much smaller estimated amount to resume the Toachi Pilatón project, as outlined in the background of the resolution of the start of the new hiring process.

Celec initially established a referential budget of 75’373,174 dollars to complete the electromechanical and hydromechanical works. But the representatives of Tyazhmash, the only invited company, questioned that amount. The Russian company announced an estimate of $ 112,080,000 to execute the work, without counting duties or taxes.

The public entity then resorted to a private consultancy to analyze aspects such as technical specifications, execution schedule and project design criteria.

Dueroing, the contracted consulting firm, determined the value of $ 124.6 million. In this context, Celec’s technical recommendation was that “in the shortest possible time, the actions to start contracting with the manufacturer of the main project teams and who was the main subcontractor of the previous contract, the Tyazhmash company, be initiated.”

The messes in the project

A demand of by means

Since its inception, the Toachi Pilatón project has been marked by legal entanglements. In 2008 Odebrecht, the first contractor, left the work when it had to leave Ecuador after the scandal of the San Francisco plant. The last mess: a lawsuit for 86 million against the Ecuadorian State. It was filed by the Inter Rao company in December 2018, at the arbitration and mediation center of the Santiago de Chile Chamber of Commerce. The Russian company raised a commercial arbitration process, after Celec decided to terminate the contract early and unilaterally.

Terms

Advance

Celec EP will grant an advance of 40% of the total value of the contract, less the cost of the goods and extraordinary works, upon presentation of the guarantee of good use of the advance for 100% of the value thereof, establish the specifications as one the conditions contractual.

Fulfillment

For the proper control of the development of the project, 12 milestones of mandatory compliance are established, with established deadlines. These milestones begin with the termination of the Presa Toachi bottom drainage system and culminate with the partial reception of the generating unit of the Toachi mini-power plant. (I)

Source: https://www.expreso.ec/actualidad/proyecto-toachipilaton-empresa-tyazhmash-CI2846015