Majes Siguas II: what comes after addendum 13

With the approval of addendum 13 that will reactivate Majes Siguas II, several tasks will be carried out by the Regional Government of Arequipa (GRA), owner of the agro-industrial project.

With the regional agreement in hand, Governor Kimmberlee Gutiérrez must inform the concessionaire Angostura Siguas to sign the modification of the concession contract. Counselor Harberth Zúñiga Herrera explained that a rule was approved in the Regional Council, any counselor has up to three business days to challenge it. “If none of this happens, next Thursday it would be approved,” he said. The next thing is to resume the work, suspended four years ago, and hope that the Spanish also make their financial closure in six months.

The executive manager of the Majes Autonomous Authority (Autodema), Arturo Arroyo Ambia, said that the concessionaire has two months to restart work. The tunnel boring machine must be fine-tuned to drill the trans-Andean tunnel. Angostura Siguas also has two months to present the water distribution file in the Siguas pampas and that includes the technological change approved with the addendum. You must process the Certificate of Non-existence of Archaeological Remains (CIRA) and the respective environmental permits.

Meanwhile, the GRA must hand over control of the project with cleared land for the execution of major works: the Angostura dam of 1,000 million cubic meters and the tunnel to transfer the waters of the Atlantic to the Arequipa desert.

In this regard, Arroyo Ambia indicated that at this time they were advancing in work tables with the community members throughout the area of ​​influence, so there is little left to complete this stage. If it does not come to fruition, the expropriation will proceed, paying the owners what the law indicates.

The energy component

There are two components: the agricultural component, with the irrigation of 38,500 hectares in the Siguas pampa, and the energy component, with the construction for now of a hydroelectric plant. This will work with the 34 cubic meters of water transferred from the Condoroma and Angostura dams.

Jimmy Masciotti, an official from Inland Energy, confirmed the construction of the Lluclla hydroelectric plant. For this project, they already have the main paperwork approved, only some details are missing and negotiations are underway with the contractors who will be in charge of the hydromechanical and electromechanical part. He said that the contracts are almost finished, since they depended on the approval of addendum 13. This was an essential requirement that Angostura Siguas demanded to continue with the concession.

The key

Agro. Majes will allow the cultivation of products with added value such as avocados, grapes and artichokes, which will generate exports for the Arequipa region for US$ 1,010 million per year.

Lluclla: assured energy for Majes Siguas II

Lluclla is located in the intermediate zone of the project. The hydroelectric plant will work thanks to a fall of a thousand meters. With that amount of water and at a height of 500 meters, Masciotti said, only half the energy would have been generated. With this new height, the turbines will be able to generate 300 MW.

The construction of the hydroelectric plant will generate more than a thousand jobs. They will pay the GRA an estimated US$8.5 million annually for the use of water and approximately US$11.5 million in income tax, from which the energy canon will come.