US Alcoa wraps up revamp project at 351-MW Tapoco HPP

Sep 28, 2012 - US aluminium producer Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) said Wednesday that it had completed the USD-110-million (EUR 85m) revamp project at its 351-MW Tapoco hydropower plant (HPP) in North Carolina.

The modernisation project involved four of the five hydropower units at the Cheoah dam, which is one of the four individual parts of Tapoco.

The project’s major goal was to boost the efficiency and power output of the dam and also increase its life by some 40-50 years. The US Department of Energy (DOE), which has provided a USD-12.95-million grant for the revamp, had set a power capacity boost target of 28% for the four renovated units. Alcoa pointed out that it had achieved a 50% rise from 88 MW to 132 MW.

Apart from the generation unit upgrades, the project also involved the modernisation of process and utility systems. It eliminated the use of circuit breaker oil and cut significantly the consumption of transformer oil, resulting in significant savings.

Alcoa noted that it expected to wrap up by the spring of next year the revamp project’s second phase, which includes the upgrade of additional units at Tapoco.

In June the US company agreed to dispose of Tapoco to Canadian Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners LP (TSE:BEP.UN). The USD-600-million deal is seen to be completed by end-2012.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.772)

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