IC Power bolsters Latin American presence

IC Power gains control of a Latin American firm active in natural gas compression, distribution and electricity production.

By SHARON UDASIN
power station 88 224 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
power station 88 224
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
IC Power, a subsidiary of the Israel Corporation, will be increasing its power plant presence in Latin America with an expansion to Colombia, the company announced on Wednesday.
In an $18 million acquisition, IC Power has gained control of a local firm active in natural gas compression, distribution and electricity production, the company said.
The new venture in Colombia joins a wealth of recent IC Power activity in South and Central America, as well as Caribbean countries.
Although the company has an increasing amount of power infrastructure in the region, a spokesman for the firm stressed that the power plants were not affected by the earthquake and tsunami that shook Peru and Chile on Tuesday.
In December, through its Latin American subsidiary Inkia Energy, IC Power won a $1 billion tender to build a dual natural gas turbine and diesel capable power plant in the city of Mollendo, near Peru’s southern tip. Meanwhile, Kallpa Generacion SA – of which IC Power’s Inkia Energy is a 75-percent stakeholder – soon thereafter purchased the 193-megawatt Las Flores gas facility. The Las Flores plant is located in the vicinity of a larger, 870-MW Kallpa site, in the central coastal city of Chilca, about 65 kilometers south of Lima.
Bolstering its Latin American presence, IC Power announced on Wednesday that it had received approvals for the purchase of additional shares at sites in which Inkia Energy operates in Nicaragua.
Inkia is a stakeholder in 185 MWs worth of power plants in Nicaragua, which includes 63 MWs worth of wind power and 122 MWs worth of fuel oil plants.
Inkia is a partner in other natural gas and hydroelectric power plants in Peru, as well as projects in Bolivia in South America; El Salvador and Panama in Central America; and Jamaica and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.