Local Technicians of Micro-Hydro Power Plants trained in Bolivia

Posted on | March 17, 2010 | No Comments

Under the EASE – Bolivia strategies, ENERGETICA joint with the Institute of Hydraulics and Hydrology (IHH) of the University Mayor de San Andres (UMSA), since 9 until 11 December 2009, was executed a Training Workshop in Operation, Maintenance and Management of Micro-Hydro Power Plants (MHP) for local operators. This workshop was held at IHH’s facilities in La Paz city and participated a total of 58 people, corresponding to 30 MHP’s.

The workshop was sponsored by the Bolivia’s Vice Ministry of Electricity and Alternative Energy.

The trainers, experts of IHH and ENERGETICA, exposed topics related to the operation of the MHP’s such as: the basic concepts of hydroelectric generation, operation, maintenance and management of MHP’s. Finally, a workshop to exchange experiences between the local operators was carried out.

In relation with all the participants, most are from La Paz (83%) subsequently found Cochabamba, Potosi and Santa Cruz. The MHPP’s are in 14 municipalities and supply electricity to 3.800 rural families distributed in 59 communities. The total installed capacity is 17.77 MW. These MHPP employing about 50 local technicians, each one have between 1 to 5 employees, in essence are small rural enterprises.

These power plants provide electric services in scattered areas of the country where conventional rural electrification could not arrive.

From this experience, the IHH and ENERGETICA will be planned for 2010:

Visit and providing technical assistance to each MHPP to develop a specific work plan, in order to give sustainability to this projects.
Execute a second workshop to training local technicians, considering specific demands of their daily work.
Produce an Operation and Maintenance MHPP Manual, like a product of experiences of the local operators.

The workshop participants expressed satisfaction with the initiative developed and recalled the role in developing rural area is very important, therefore make solicitude to sector authorities to no neglect to who comply with this important work.