Uruguay: opening of an ultra-high voltage transmission line installed by Terna
An ultra-high voltage power line was opened between Tacuarembó and Melo (the capitals of the Country’s Northern Departments, close to the border with Brazil) built by the Italian company Terna in consortium with the Uruguayan construction company Saceem, thanks to a contract adjudicated through a tendering procedure opened in 2016.
In his remarks at the opening ceremony, the President of UTE, Uruguay’s National Administration of Power Plants and Electrical Transmissions, underscored the fundamental role of the 500kV power line (213 km long) built by Terna to complete the so-called “north loop”, which is part of a broader project to upgrade the power transmission network that will rationalise and make energy management more efficient, thus avoiding the sudden power outages that have characterised the region in the past.
UTE reports that more than 480 million USD have been invested on transmission networks in the last 10 years only in the north of the Country, while in the whole of Uruguay, investments amounted to almost 1.1 billion USD (15% of all the money invested in the electricity sector). As for the future, UTE plans to invest 1.2 billion USD over the next 5 years, a quarter of which to complete the transmission networks. The priority of the public power company will nonetheless be the distribution sector (with 464 million USD forecast), with the aim of avoiding power blackouts originating from extreme climate phenomena.
