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March 27, 2008 |
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COPEL: Regulator Okays Hydro Plant Construction With Eletrosul Parana environmental regulator Instituto Ambiental do Parana has granted Companhia Paranaense de Energia aka Copel the installation license for its 361-megawatt hydro plant with Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras S.A. aka Eletrobras subsidiary Eletrosul. Business News Americas relates that the license will let Copel and Eletrosul start building the plant. Copel told BNamericas that investments in the plant will be almost BRL1 billion. Copel's President Rubens Ghilardi commented to BNamericas, "We have a commitment to make power from Maua available to consumers starting in 2011. That commitment cannot be postponed." Maua will sell power to the regulated market under 30-year contracts with 24 power distributors all over Brazil, BNamericas states. Headquartered in Parana, Brazil, COPEL aka Companhia Paranaense de Energia SA -- http://www.copel.com/ir -- (NYSE: ELP/LATIBEX: XCOP/BOVESPA: CPLE3, CPLE5, CPLE6) transmits and distributes electricity to more than 3 million customers in the state of Parana and has a generating capacity of nearly 4,600 megawatts, primarily from hydroelectric plants. COPEL also offers telecommunications, natural gas, engineering, and water and sanitation services. The company restructured its utility operations in 2001 into separate generation, transmission, and distribution subsidiaries to prepare for full privatization, which has been indefinitely postponed. In response, Copel is re-evaluating its corporate structure. The government of Parana controls about 59% of Copel. * * * As reported in the Troubled Company Reporter-Latin America on Dec. 13, 2006, Moody's America Latina upgraded the corporate family rating of Companhia Paranaense de Energia aka Copel to Ba2 from Ba3 on its global scale. Moody's also upgraded its rating on the company's BRL500 million senior unsecured guaranteed debentures due 2007 to Ba2 from Ba3 (Global Local Currency) as well as its rating on the BRL400 million senior secured Guaranteed debentures due 2009 to Ba1 from Ba2 (Global Local Currency). Moody's said the rating outlook is stable. This rating action concludes the review process initiated on July 26, 2006, and still hold to date. |
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