18-03-03 German hydropower engineering firm Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation has won a $ 45 mm engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to install three small-scale hydroelectric power plants with total installed capacity of 60 MW for Mexico's Comex Hidro, Voith Siemens Brazil executive manager Sergio Parada told.

Voith Siemens Brazil has 100 % responsibility for installing the three plants -- El Gallo, Benito Juarez and Chilatan -- which will be built into existing reservoirs that were either built to contain floods or provide irrigation, Parada said. Final contracts have been signed, and Voith Siemens is now waiting for final authorization to proceed, Parada said.
The three plants will take between 21-23 months to build and part of the expenses will be covered by a project finance deal put together by Comex, he said.

Because the reservoirs have already been built, civil construction work will account for just 25 % of the construction costs, and the remaining 75 % will go on equipment, Parada said, adding that it also reduces the risk of EPC projects.
"Normally with EPC, the largest problem is the geological issue, to hold up the dam, and the hydrological issue, knowing how much rainfall there is," Parada said. "With the dam there, it's just a question of switching on [the plant]."

Comex is studying "dozens" of hydro project possibilities in existing reservoirs across Mexico, Parada said, adding just one-third of all existing dams worldwide have any sort of hydroelectric power production.
Voith Siemens is a Brazilian joint venture formed by Austria's J.M. Voith and Germany's Siemens in 2000; this will be its first project in Mexico.