Meeting Panama’s Growing New for Power MWH was the Owner’s Engineer for the 120 MW Estí Hydroelectric Project, part of a program to meet Panama’s growing need for electricity.
Completed in 2003 and located 400 kilometers west of Panama City, the project uses outflows from the existing Chiriquí and Fortuna hydroelectric projects, intervening inflows of the Caldera and Chiriquí Rivers and natural flows of the Barringón and Estí rivers to produce electricity in the 120 MW Canjilones power station.
The project includes two dams. One is a 35.5-meter-high, 213-meter-long concrete dam on the Chiriquí River with an ungated 3,390 m3/s ogee spillway and flip bucket. It has a concrete intake with trashracks and two gates, and a 5,100-meter-long canal that carries water to the Barringón River. The second dam, a 60-meter-high, concrete-faced rock-fill dam on the Barringón River with a gated ogee, chute spillway with discharge capacity of 1,077 m3/s. It includes a concrete power intake with trashracks, a 5,000-meter-long tunnel, a 410-meter-long penstock and a bifurcation. The surface powerhouse contains two 60 MW vertical-shaft turbines and a single-circuit 230-kV transmission line that runs 0.5 kilometers to the Guasquitas substation.
Preparation of owner’s technical requirements
Assistance with engineering, procurement and construction contract preparation and negotiation
Project reformulation
Design review
Construction drawings review
Engineering management
Construction inspection
Assistance in final project report
MWH reformulated the project to achieve a more efficient and cost-effective design and better utilization of the hydraulic resource.
The owner’s technical requirements prepared by MWH permitted the engineering, procurement and construction contractor to completely understand the project and complete it on time and within the contract cost.
Effective design review, inspection, testing and commissioning by the MWH team resulted in a well-designed and constructed project.
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