Iberdrola Engineering and Construction has successfully completed the work to modernise the Laguna Verde power plant in Mexico, after concluding the fourth and last scheduled fuel recharge and synchronising both units at the plant to the grid.
The aim of this initiative, which is one of the most important to be carried out in recent years in the nuclear energy sector worldwide, was to increase the original thermal power of this Mexican electricity generation plant by 20%.
With this objective in mind, Iberdrola subsidiary thoroughly revamped the equipment and facilities at the plant, starting in the year 2007. The capacity of each unit at the nuclear power plant now stands at 820 megawatts (MW).
The changes made have also allowed to extend the plant's operating life to 40 years. Over 2,000 people participated in the last stage of the work, with a record 2.8 million accident-free hours of work being recorded.
Iberdrola Engineering (97%), operating in a consortium with Alstom Mexicana (3%), was awarded the contract to undertake this project in early 2007, for more than $600 million. The international call to tender was announced by the Mexican public electricity company, the Federal Electricity Commission.
The terms of the award included the following tasks, among others: design, engineering, supply of equipment and materials, installation, assembly and testing for the power uprate at units 1 and 2 of this Mexican nuclear power plant.
In 2010, Iberdrola Engineering and Construction completed the project to modernise the Angra nuclear power plant in Brazil. A consortium headed by this subsidiary of Iberdrola, with the participation of the Spanish Elytt Energy and the Italian ASG Superconductors, was also awarded the EURO 156 million contract to manufacture the toroidal reels for the international fusion energy project ITER. In Ukraine, the company was responsible for one of the major milestones in modernising the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant and in Bulgaria, the consortium formed by Iberdrola Engineering (80%) and the Belgian Belgoprocess (20%) was awarded the contract to commission a radioactive waste processing facility at the Kozloduy plant. In Slovakia, the company has also recently completed the last stage of work at the Bohunice nuclear power plant (Slovakia).
